PUNE: The
Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a collective fine of over Rs
6.17 crore on six firms for “bid-rigging” and “collusive bidding” in the online
tendering process for installing wet garbage processing plants worth Rs 15
crore in Pune city during 2014-15. The six firms bagged the work order issued
by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
In its May 2 order, the office of the director-general, CCI,
said it had found evidence that the PMC had failed to detect “cartelisation” in
its own tenders. “It is clear from the investigation that the PMC did not
exercise due diligence while scrutinising the bid documents,” it said.
The CCI, the country’s fairplay watchdog, lists evidence against
the PMC in its order such as uploading of online tenders from the same IP
address, call data records of communication between some officials of the PMC
with the bidders and other systemic failures on the part of the corporation to
indicate that the PMC may have facilitated bid-rigging.
The PMC, however, was vehement in denying the involvement of
its officials. Suresh Jagtap, head of the PMC’s solid waste management, said,
“The CCI has imposed penalty on the six firms who were found to be at fault for
cartelisation. PMC officials have not been found guilty during the
investigation. The CCI’s office of the director general took statements of all
the top officials of the PMC but they didn’t find anyone at fault,” he said.
The CCI was investigating a complaint filed by city-based
charitable trust, Nagarik Chetana Manch (NCM), against irregularities in the
tendering process. The PMC, through the issue of five tenders, had planned to
install 13 thermal-composting plants for processing wet household garbage. In
reality, it could execute only four tenders and gave a work order to install
eight thermal composting plants worth Rs 15 crore. These plants, each with a
capacity to process five tonne wet garbage, have been installed at Pashan,
Vadgaon, Peshwe Park, Koregaon Park, Kharadi, Tarachand Hospital, Ghole road
and Kasba Peth.
The CCI, however, later reduced the collective fine imposed on
the six firms by 25%-50%, based on the quantum of their violations. The CCI
order said all six firms confessed to “collusive bidding”.
Speaking to pune-news.com,
Major General (retd) S C N Jathar of the NCM said, “The six firms revealed the
modus operandi that helped one of them get the work order for the five tenders.
The CCI’s order will help us to seek action against the PMC officials. We will
approach the anti-corruption bureau to nail the officials at fault.”
Asked about the evidence listed in the CCI order, Jagtap said,
“We don’t have mechanism to check whether the online forms were filed from the
same computers and have the same IP address. Besides, we ensure deposit money
in the form of demand draft but we don’t verify the account numbers. Besides,
the calls were made by our officials, including deputy engineers and assistant
commissioners, to follow up on the work. Those were official calls.”
Incidentally, the thermal composting plants installed by the
PMC through these tenders were in news for the wrong reasons. The NCM had
carried out a chemical analysis of the compost independently and found that it
contained poisonous substances like chromium and mercury.
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