BMP garbage contracts were designed for self-benefit

BMP garbage contracts were designed for self-benefit
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) garbage contracts will benefit only the officials and the contractors.

Despite many allegations of irregularities and even after official admission of failure to estimate costs, the BMP has advised the contractors not to take any steps to ward off criticism.

BMP’s 182 health wards were increased to 253 even though there was no increase in total jurisdiction of the civic body, but the number of packages were reduced from 62 to 32.

Interestingly, the packages were designed to match the existing jurisdictions of Medical Officers-Health (MoH).

BMP special commissioner Gaurav GupMta told this website's newspaper that while planning the new contracts, the councilors demanded every general ward to be designed as a package.

But the officials feared ‘interference’ by the councilors and clubbed all the wards in a MoH range to make a package.

Further, MoHs would make the monthly payments to the contractors while councilors of 2-3 wards would have to pursue them for proper implementation of the contract.

The scheme also seems to have suited the contractors, as reduction in the number of packages means less competition. Every month each of the MoHs will handle payments of about Rs 30-50 lakh.

As BMP has given the contractors a huge margin, anybody can guess the nexus between officials and the contractors. That also explains why MoHs, many of them specialist doctors on deputation to BMP, refuse to return to their parent department.

Mayor Mumtaz Begum had sent a list of about 20 specialist doctors to be sent back to the parent department but that was not taken seriously.

BMP sources also said that the civic body referred the new contracts to the consultant, IDeCK, after it received the bids while generally the consultant prepares tender documents and monitors the bids.