Nagaland Govt. Registered Class-I Contractors’ Union (NGRC-1CU) has submitted to the State chief minister a long list of grievances faced by government contractors, especially local contractors, due to alleged flouting of contract rules by various government departments.
NGRC-1CU in a memorandum to the chief minister signed by its president KC Angami, general secretary L Pukhato Shohe, vice president S Bendang Jamir and legal advisor Kezhokhoto Savi, said ever since the NPWD and CPWD Code was enforced in Nagaland, allotment of contract works in the State was not in compliance with the codal formalities of the Code.
“Open tender is not done in respect of almost all the works. On several occasions we have been requesting all the departments of the State to float tenders in local media so that equal privileges are given to every contractor,” the union said.
Insisting that criteria, terms and conditions for notice inviting tender should be consistent for all departments, NGRC-1CU demanded a standard tender NIT format with similar terms and conditions, which cannot be tampered with by any individual or department.
Stating that many works were allotted trough table tender in various departments like Medical, PHQ, PHE, Power, Soil Conservation, Agriculture, Irrigation, Vet. & AH and Tourism, the union said except for Urban Development department and a few of PWD works, no other department in the State was transparent in execution of work, either in construction or supply works.
The union also pointed out to the numerous tax deductions from bills of contractors including 4% contract work tax imposed by Finance department, 3% contingency, 2% work charge establishment and 13% departmental charge, in addition to deduction for Royalty and NST and 1% for Planning Department’s charge.
“Besides this, huge amount are deducted from contractors for so many other reasons due to which we the contractors of Nagaland are not able to give the desired quality of work or even finish the work,” the union said.
On the other hand, NGRC-1CU said release of bill was irregular with no possibility of rate escalations despite the huge escalation of cost of materials in the market. “Some of our contractors are still working at 1995 schedule and 2004 schedule of rate of NPWD, whereas non-local contractors are safe because they are covered by the escalation clauses awarded to them,” NGRC-1CU added.
Requesting all government departments to cancel the contract clause “Payment shall be made as and when fund is available” since the clause was “arbitrary and discriminatory” and not tenable for any contract work anywhere in the country except Nagaland, the union also urged the government to take punitive action against “errant officials who resort to tactics to strangulate contractors’ bills.”
Alleging that in the past, almost all departments were biased in awarding contract works to non-local contractors over local contractors, the union said non-local contractors were awarded 7.5% enhancement per year alongwith escalation as per RBI index.
The union reiterated its demand that the rates, terms and conditions of contract including escalation as per RBI index be given to all contractors without bias.
On reports of government servants indulging in contract works, NGRC-1CU urged the government employees to perform their duties and not indulge in contract and supply works since they were enjoying almost 70% of the State’s budget by way of salaries and facilities.
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