A revelation of how Lamkichuha Municipality of Kailali has been hoodwinking the people and the authorities by awarding contracts to a single contractor by forming just-for-name-sake user committees in the pretext of abiding by the provisions. Moreover, the municipality has made payments without completing the project.
Basant pratap singh/Janak Bista : Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal
The Kailali Municipality-1 allocated Rs 4.8 million to blacktop the 900-meter-road at the Bhuruwa-based Electricity Line of the municipality in the last fiscal year.
Prior to this, on May 26, 2019 – close to the end of the fiscal year — the municipality formed a consumer/user committee headed by Saraswoti Timilsina, a local.
The road to Motipur from Ganeshpur isn’t blacktopped but payments have been claimed citing work has been completed. Photo: Janak Bista
On June 2, 2019, the municipality and the committee agreed to blacktop the 900-meter road at the cost of Rs 72,17,123 (Rs 48 lakh 1 thousand allocated by the municipality and Rs 24,16,123 through public participation).
The user’s committee, however, gave away the contract to Krishna Budamagar, a local contractor, and that, too, in a budget 46 percent less than the total agreed-upon amount.
Says Budamagar, “The committee gave me the contract at an amount far less than the total amount that was agreed between the municipality and the user’s committee.”
He, however, pledged to expedite and complete the work, which was earlier disrupted owing to the rains.
Despite his assurance of completing the work at the earliest, not much has been done so far by Budamagar’s NBM Construction (P) Ltd Company. However, absurd it may sound, the municipality has already allocated Rs 480,10,00 to the user’s committee by counterfeiting documents.
Even more surprisingly, the user’s committee released only Rs. 14 lakhs to the contractor. The rest amount has been deposited in the user committee’s bank account.
Says committee chairperson Timilsina, “Our job is done since we have already awarded the contract to Budamagar to blacktop the road. Furthermore, we have agreed on the budget to be given to the contractor while signing the contract with the municipality. I agree that the contractor has expressed grudges citing insufficient budget. Therefore, we did not think it wise to complain against him.”
She, meanwhile, alleged the contractor describing the work ‘snail-paced’, adding that their concern is to sign the bank cheques. “The rest lies on the contractor to expedite the work. We are not to be blamed for the slow-paced work.”
The Lamkichuha Municipality has been accustomed to hoodwinking the people and the authorities concerned by giving away small-scale project contracts by forming just-for-name-sake user committees.
In the last fiscal year, the municipality awarded 13 projects for blacktopping roads to contractors through such ‘pocket’ user committees. Contractor Krishna Budamagar, however, was privileged enough to get eight out of the 13 projects worth Rs 3 crore 38 lakh 80 thousand.
Ironically, the municipality formed two user committees to complete a single project, and later awarding the project to two contractors. The municipality had allocated Rs 76 lakh to blacktop the 1,400-meter road from the East-West Highway of ward-2 to Motipur. Two user committees were formed under the chairpersonship of locals Dinesh Bista and Purna Giri in May this year to ‘manage’ the project.
While the municipality entrusted the first committee to blacktop the 600-meter road from the highway to Motipur School, it handed over the responsibility to take care of the 800-meter road from Motipur School to the other committee. The municipality allocated Rs 34 lakh and Rs 42 lakh to blacktop the 600-meter and 800-meter road, respectively. However, even though separate agreements were made with Bista and Giri, contractor Budamagar got both the contracts.
Similarly, the municipality allocated Rs 39 lakh to blacktop the road from Gidhaniya of Lamkichuha-4 to Choripur in the last fiscal year. Two masquerade user committees were formed for the same. Here, the same contractor, Budamagar, was fortunate enough to get this contract. Two user committees were formed under Hikmat Chhetri and Aaitabari Lal Chaudhary to handle the project.
The municipality has already disbursed the budget while the role of the user committees has been nothing more than signing the cheques. The agreement between the municipality and the committee was broken as the project should have been completed within the first week of November according to the deal. Meanwhile, the municipality has disbursed the total amount in July prior to the completion of the work claiming that the project has been accomplished.
Meanwhile, despite the agreement of completing the blacktopping of eight roads, Budamagar has so far accomplished only the Chisapani-Tukibazar section of the road. The rest seven awaits blacktopping.
Absurdly enough, the budget has already been disbursed before July, the end of the fiscal year. Contractor Budamagar, however, complains of not receiving the agreed-upon budget. “How do you expect the work to be completed without sufficient budget?” he queries, adding, “So far, I have received only 15 percent of the total budget and I have been asked to complete 75 percent of the work.”
The contract was given to contractor Budamagar based on ‘mutual understanding’ between the municipality and the committee. However, the chairpersons are unaware of the projects and the formalities that have been carried out.
An agreement was signed with the user committee chairperson Hikmat Chhetri to construct the road from Choripur to Bohara’s house of the Gidhaniya-Choripur road section.
Likewise, the road from Bohara’s house to Gidhaniya has been given to Aaitabari Lal Chaudhary’s committee. However, Chaudhary is unaware of the work progress and formalities. “To tell you the truth, I am ignorant about this,” Chaudhary said, adding, “I assume that Hikmat Chhetri should be involved in the construction of the road. I agreed to play the role of a chairman simply because I was asked to do it. To be frank, I have no role to play.”
Chhetri, on the other hand, too expresses ignorance about the process and the work progress. “I have absolutely no idea about it. Maybe the municipality constituted the user committee to sign on the cheques and make some money,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dinesh Bista, chairperson of the user’s committee, entrusted to blacktop the 600-meter road out of the 1,400 meters, from the East-West Highway to Motipur, too, expressed ignorance about the contract. “The municipality gave away the contract to Budamagar, not the user’s committee. The committee’s responsibility is to convene the meeting and disburse money.”
Saraswoti Timilsina, the chairperson of the user’s committee entrusted to blacktop the 900-meter electricity line road, says the municipal mayor awarded the contract to contractor Budamagar. “We (myself and the treasurer) had recommended the name of contractor Dipendra Swar to blacktop the road. Instead, the mayor and ward-chairman hired Krishna.”
Bidhyut line road hasn’t been blacktopped but payments have been claimed citing work has been completed.
The Lamkichuha municipality awarded the contract of blacktopping five roads to Dipendra Swar by allocating Rs 1 crore 41 lakh 75 thousand and five hundred seventy-four. So-called user committees have been formed for these projects. The road blacktopped by Dipendra Swar from the north of Gapka High School has been in a dilapidated condition now though it was said to be blacktopped recently.
Says ward chairman Purna Bista, “The blacktop did not even last for a month since the work was done during the rainy season.” He added that they have asked the concerned contractor and the user committee to repair the road. “Let’s see how the contractor responds,” he says.
Meanwhile, chief administrative officer at the municipality Krishna Bahadur Khadka claims that the user committees have been formed according to the provision of allocating up to Rs 1 crore for completion of small-scale projects. “Our task is to fulfill the process, the formation of two committees for a single project could have some vested interest of the mayor and the deputy mayor,” he raised doubts over the entire process.
Mayor Mahadev Bajgai, however, has a different story. “We gave away the contract of eight projects to Krishna Budamagar in the absence of other reasonable contractors,” Bajgai adds.
The municipality has deposited the amount in the name of so-called user committees by preparing fake documents for completion of the 13 projects.
However, chief administrative officer at the municipality, Krishna Bahadur Khadka says the bank account for the projects that have been deposited in the name of the user committees has been frozen. “Since we have frozen the budget, we can expect that the budget is safe and can be refunded since we have the right to do so.”
Accounts assistant at the municipality Saroj Chaudhary said it was illegal to pay out the budget without completing the project. He, however, said that the budget has been released owing to the pressure coming from the elected representatives. “Despite being illegal, we released the budget for failing to endure to the representatives’ pressure.”
Chaudhary informed that there has been an agreement to withdraw the amount from the bank only after completion of the project. Interestingly, the municipality’s annual progress report has mentioned that all incomplete projects, too, have been ‘completed’.
Consider what Laxmi Dutta Joshi, chief fund controller at the Fund and Accounts Controller’s Office, Dhangadhi has to say: “Releasing the budget without the completion of the project is against the Public Procurement Act.”
Violation of law
The Lamkichuha Municipality in its progress report has mentioned that it has completed 13 projects of blacktopping roads in the last fiscal year. However, it has formed ‘shadow’ user committees. It has violated the law in accomplishing the projects worth Rs 4 crore 80 lakh 55 thousand and five hundred seventy-four.
The 7th amendment of the Public Procurement Rules, 2007, does not allow the users’ committee to execute tasks like black-topping. The amendment made in 2019 has got the provision citing the practical aspects of the activity.
Carrying out the tasks like black-topping requires the use of heavy equipment procurement and mobilization of which is beyond the capacity of the users’ committee or the local beneficiaries.
“Heavy machines such as the loader, excavator, roller, dozer, grader, bitumen distributor, and bitumen boiler cannot be used in the construction work to be carried out by users’ committee or beneficiary community,” says Clause 97(9) of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.
But on the roads, the municipality has assigned to the users’ committee heavy equipment are used for blacktopping. Deeming the use of heavy equipment as the violation of the Act, the Rule (9) has the provision of terminating the contract provided the use of heavy equipment is proved.
Similarly, Clause 10 deems the act of getting the work done through the third party as an illegal act and further says, “The users’ committee or beneficiary community itself shall have to complete the work obtained by it and cannot cause such work to be carried out from a construction entrepreneur or a sub-contractor.”
If for any reason, the committee to whom the task is assigned cannot complete that work, it has to provide the notice to the Public Entity. About the termination, the act says, “Upon receipt of such notice, the Public Entity shall, after making a necessary inquiry in respect thereof, terminate the contract concluded with such a committee or community and have the remaining work carried out as per the Act and this Regulation.”(Rule 10).
However, in the construction activities run by Lamkichuha Municipality, no legal obligations are met. Mayor Bajgain defends such acts as the one meant done with good intent. Challenging the regulations openly he yells, “Backpack the acts and rules, we are not obliged to them. We got it approved from Municipal Assembly and none is above this Assembly.”
