ACS delaying tenders, alleges infra corpn CEO

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 9

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Corporation (PMIDC), Ajoy Sharma, has accused his senior and Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Local Government, Sanjay Kumar, of causing unnecessary delay in the tendering process of different projects.

In an official document accessed by The Tribune, the CEO, in his recent communication to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) and Chief Secretary, has alleged that the ACS was interfering and causing unnecessary delay in extending contract of a project management and development consultant and the tendering process of the Rs 250-crore Integrated Command Control Centre Project-Way Finding and Signage under the Smart City initiative.

‘No information on matter’

As I have not seen any such communication, it will be difficult for me to comment on the matter. As and when any such document comes to me, I will give an appropriate reply. Sanjay Kumar, ACS, Local government

Citing inability to continue as the CEO, the bureaucrat is learnt to have sought leave for two weeks. The Chief Secretary has been asked to intervene and sort out the matter, it is learnt.

The CEO’s communication to the higher authorities came in the backdrop of Local Government Minister Brahm Mohindra recommending the registration of an FIR against officials of his department after the file pertaining to allotment of work to a project management and development consultant — Shah Technical Consultant Private Limited — reportedly went missing from the PMIDC office.

Interestingly, the file was later traced from the office of a former Technical Adviser to the Chief Minister, whose office is housed adjacent to the PMIDC office in Sector 35 here.

Sanjay Kumar was appointed last year as the ACS, Local Government, on the recommendation of Mohindra.

In the communication, the CEO has pointed out that the four-year contract of Shah Technical Consultant Private Limited, had expired on March 31, 2020, and needed to be extended till March 31, 2021, as the Centre had extended the AMRUT scheme. Accordingly, the case for extension came up on May 15, 2020, but the ACS sought the main file. As the file on which the tender was floated could not be traced then, it was reconstructed with copies of agreements and approvals and was again submitted to the ACS on June 8. The file was again returned by the ACS on July 3, asking for the main file containing the tendering process.

Ajoy Sharma, CEO, PMIDC, said, “The tender mainly related to hiring manpower. It was finalised more than a year before I joined. We got the work done efficiently. The main file could not be traced due to Covid limitations, but was already reconstructed when put up for a decision on May 15. The notings are confidential and I will not comment on the issue.”

Sanjay Kumar, ACS, Local Government, said, “As I have not seen any such communication, it would be difficult for me to comment. As and when any such document comes to me, I will give an appropriate reply.”