Audit flags serious lapses in Sangli Rs 79.50 crore garbage project tender, orders Rs 52.48 lakh recovery

An audit report has raised serious objections over a proposed Rs 79.50 crore project for biomining old waste dumped at the Samdoli Road and Miraj-Bedag Road garbage depots of Sangli Municipal Corporation and for processing daily waste generated in the city. The report says the tender process was conducted in a manner that ensured the work went to a particular company. It has questioned the tender conditions, the presence of a single bidder, the rates and technical scores, as well as the contractor's eligibility.

The plan proposed spending Rs 36,13,13,667 on biomining old waste accumulated at the Samdoli Road and Miraj-Bedag Road depots, and Rs 43,36,60,269 on processing and disposal of daily waste, together totalling Rs 79.50 crore. The audit notes that the Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran had approved only up to Rs 60,02,75,269, while no technical or administrative approval documents were produced for the remaining increased expenditure of Rs 19,46,98,667, and this amount has therefore been flagged as objectionable.

The tender for the Rs 43.36 crore daily waste processing work carried extremely complex and specific conditions. The audit says these conditions appear designed to make only a particular bidder eligible, as a result of which the corporation did not benefit from competitive rates. When the financial bid of the sole bidder for this work was opened, a rate of Rs 772 per metric tonne was quoted, which was later negotiated down to Rs 720. The rate for biomining of old waste was fixed at Rs 419 per tonne and for daily processing at Rs 720 per tonne, both of which the audit has termed unrealistic.

The Rs 36.13 crore tender for biomining of old waste covered processing of about 8,42,223 cubic metres of waste at the Samdoli and Miraj-Bedag Road depots. Krishna Green and Zigma Global participated in this tender. Krishna Green is a partnership firm, and documents belonging to Bhoomi Green were submitted to demonstrate its technical and financial eligibility. An agreement on a Rs 500 stamp paper described Krishna Green as an SPV of Bhoomi Green, but the tender conditions made no mention of an SPV, and this has been objected to.

The audit report states that work worth around Rs 36 crore was awarded to Krishna Green despite it lacking prior experience in solid waste management, financial eligibility and capital. It has also held Rs 41.88 lakh recoverable over short deduction of workers' insurance and cess, and Rs 10.60 lakh recoverable over short deduction of insurance in the daily waste processing work, taking the total recoverable amount to Rs 52.48 lakh.