Mumbai police’s SIT registers three PEs regarding work orders under scanner in irregularities' in civic contracts

Mumbai Police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged irregularities in the award of contracts worth Rs 12,024 crore issued by the city civic body in the past has registered three Preliminary Enquiries (PE), an official said.

PEs are in connection with work orders issued between November 2019 and October 2022, he said. The official said the SIT, investigating the alleged irregularities flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) into the award of civic contracts worth over Rs 12,000 crore, has so far collected some important documents and also recorded statements of some persons.

One of the three PEs is regarding the work orders worth over Rs 200 crore which were allegedly awarded without issuing tenders by the Road Department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the official said. Another PE is about the alleged non-signing of agreements between a contractor and the BMC related to 64 work orders, he said.

As many as 58 of these 64 work orders were related to the Road Department while six orders are related to four other departments, including storm water drain and sewage treatment work, he said. The third PE is about the alleged unnecessary delay by BMC in acquiring the plot of a public utility situated at Eksar village in suburban Dahisar, he said.

Prima facie, the acquisition of the land at Eksar village was unnecessarily delayed which caused a financial loss to the government. The said plot worth several crores was reserved for a public utility but was owned by a private person, he said, adding the SIT is investigating the reasons for the delay in the acquisition of the plot.

While examining documents regarding the award of work tenders, it came to light that in some work there was cost escalation while in others, a third party agreement was done, the official said.