DIMAPUR, JUNE 12 (MExN): The Opposition Congress in Nagaland has asked Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio to first do away with the rampant ‘commission system’, which has greatly compromised the quality of material and workmanship in Nagaland State over the years. A press note from the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) Media Cell was responding to Rio’s statement at the recently held workshop on ‘Quality Control’ stressing quality control in construction works and calling for creation of durable assets in Nagaland.
The NPCC stated that what Rio had stated was “laudable only if he himself sets an example to follow by removing the bottleneck in the form of rampant ‘commission system’ which has greatly compromised the quality of materials and workmanship in the State over the years.”
Alleging that the past decade of the NPF led DAN government under his stewardship has institutionalized the system of ‘Commission’, the NPCC pointed out that contractors and suppliers under the DAN regime have to bear the brunt of deduction starting from the Chief Minister, the minister concerned, party fund etc. which it stated had “emboldened majority of the bureaucrats and technocrats at all levels to claim their due share in addition to various departmental charges”.
“This institutionalized action slices a major portion of the payment meant for the contractors and suppliers leading to compromise on supply materials and workmanship quality. After all, the contractors and suppliers are not philanthropists or rendering social services, but they also have mouths to feed and sustain themselves,” stated the NPCC.
According to the NPCC, the other major concern related to quality works in the State was the “colossal cost escalation of contract works”. “There have been many instances where the revised cost had escalated to over 100-700% of the original cost, thereby bringing the question of how and why these abnormal escalations have become a routine affair,” stated the NPCC.
It went on to allege that few unscrupulous contractors in connivance with the ruling government have managed to manipulate the escalation of revised costs while the quality of work left a lot to be desired. “The construction of cricket stadium at Sovima by M/s Chabou & Co being the prime example, when the original work order amount for Rs 8, 29, 46,020 (Eight crores twenty nine lakhs forty six thousand twenty only) was revised to Rs 72,59,00,000 (Seventy two crores and fifty nine lakhs only) leading to cost escalation of 775%, which is a record of its kind.”
Therefore, the NPCC stated that the CM instead of being “optimistic about the new Nagaland PWD Code to improve working conditions and asking the contractors and suppliers to respect and implement it, in addition to high sounding pep talk to Quality Control Board officials to visit districts and create awareness among the public on quality work and technicians and qualified engineers to inspect project sites to deliver quality works, would do well to first set his house in order by doing away with the commission system and random enhancement of revised estimates.”
The NPCC stated that the “dilapidated infrastructure of the State cannot be wished away by merely talking about strict quality control when aggrandizement by the DAN government at the cost of quality works continues to flourish.”
