Karnataka’s progress, from mamool to mega-corruption

Why do highways stay good, but BBMP roads develop potholes and craters? Therein hangs the tale

In the pre-1947 days of Mysore State, there was mamool, which meant a token appreciation of a contractor for getting his bill passed, usually not exceeding 10% of the bill amount. People express surprise that in 75 years, mamool has made much progress, it has reached 40%. They forget, in a democracy, there are many mouths to feed.

Traditionally, the Public Works, Irrigation and Power departments are the main sources of mamool. This is because the government does not adopt best practices in executing works. They are: preparation of a Detailed Project Report by an outside agency; prequalification of tenders to avoid benami tenderers, such as the Chief Engineer’s son-in-law, minister’s brother, etc.; scrutiny of tenders by a committee consisting of reputed institutions such as the Indian Institute of Science. Once the tenders are received, they must be scrutinised for quality and cost and finally ranked as the Lowest (L-1), second lowest (L-2), third lowest (L-3) and so on. Once this is done, the work is awarded to the L-1 tenderer. The quality of work should be assessed by an external quality control agency selected by a tendering process. Only once that agency certifies that the quality of work is according to the DPR specifications, payment should be made within 15 days, and reimbursement claimed and received from the funding agency.

This is the reason why we do not find potholes and craters on national and state highways as we find on BBMP roads. The state government taking up projects with its own funds does not follow these best practices. Take, for instance, the construction of Vikasa Soudha, taken up in 2001. It was unilaterally announced that Rs 100 crore was allocated for it, without any detailed plan and estimates. No Internationally Competitive Bids (ICBs) were called. Only those firms ‘registered’ with the PWD were eligible to give tenders. An internationally reputed firm which had constructed airports, metro rail, roads and buildings both in India and abroad did bid, and it was even the L-1 bid at Rs 76 crore. The PWD “negotiated” with another higher cost tenderer who was nowhere near L-1 in past performance and the construction was given to this small firm. Eventually, this contractor was paid Rs 150 crore, for the delayed completion of the work.

These malpractices are intentional. On the other hand, best practices were followed in the State Highways Improvement (K-SHIP) of 2,300 kilometres, costing Rs 2,500 crore, with a 70% loan from the World Bank, which is why one will not find potholes or craters on them. In projects funded entirely by the Government of Karnataka, these practices are deliberately violated.

There is the infamous DSR -- Divisional Schedule of Rates -- for each component of work, and these rates are never updated. So, when the PWD floats tenders, all kinds of ‘registered’ contractors quote DSR+50%, +75%, etc. Then the higher cost tenderer is called and he is asked to reduce his cost to the level of the L-1 tenderer. He obliges and gets the contract. Then, deliberately, implementation is delayed and the PWD certifies that the delay is justified and the cost over-run is allowed. As there is no outside agency to exercise quality control, the PWD engineers themselves certify defective work such as 2-inch top layer of road in place of the contracted 4-inch, and the higher rate paid is shared. This is how for the Vikasa Soudha, though the L-1 tender was for Rs 76 crore, the government ultimately paid Rs 150 crore. The excess is shared between politicians, officers and contractors.

The recent outburst of the contractors that they have to pay now 40% is amusing. The inflated cost and its distribution between the contractors and ministers, MLAs and officers has been going on for decades. What has happened now is that the government is going bankrupt as salaries take away 75% of revenue and very little is left for paying the contractors. The available amount is supposed to be paid to contractors who are in the queue, but for jumping the queue, some more extra payment has to be made, and this has irked the smaller and medium-sized contractors.

A few weeks ago, the house of an engineer of Nirmiti Kendra, among others, was raided by the Anti-Corruption Bureau and over 20 apartments and sites, six luxury cars, bank deposits, gold and silver were found, valued at over Rs 65 crore. The man had started his career 35 years ago at Rs 2,000 per month! From where does the unaccounted wealth come?

Of course, it all comes from certifying defective work and sometimes even fictitious work, for which inflated bills are paid nevertheless. The officers, many MLAs and ministers are all together in this.

Everyone admires the Lok Ayukta and the ACB for raiding the houses of corrupt officers. But does anyone know what happens after the raids? There is not a single case of a senior officer or an MLA or a minister having been punished with imprisonment.

Firstly, under an antiquated and intentionally misinterpreted Section 197 of CrPC, the Department of Personnel under the Chief Minister has to give permission if a public servant has to be prosecuted. The corrupt officer always brings pressure, and that permission is withheld. Only a Village Accountant or a BBMP Health Inspector taking a bribe of Rs 5,000 is prosecuted and sometimes the court sends him to jail. When corrupt senior officers are prosecuted, under our Adversarial System of Law, the expensive lawyers that such officers hire are able to create “reasonable doubt” on technical points of law, and the accused goes free. Even the government advocates can be bought over. Recently, the recruitment of 80 of 193 Government Prosecutors was held invalid because they used forged documents to secure the position.

We are fast descending into the Paleygar-raj of the kind that existed between the death of Aurangazeb in 1707 and the disintegration of Mughal rule thereafter and the establishment of British-raj in 1857 since no Chief Minister can survive without MLAs’ support, and that support comes at a cost. Corruption is the life-blood of our democracy. And history, it is said, repeats itself as a tragedy.

(The writer is a former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt of Karnataka. He was Chairperson of the Task Force on Land-grabbing in 2010-11 and author of its report, Greed and Connivance)