K Haralu
Dimapur
Most times, public consultations are not held at the project planning stage. Fly by night experts fly in from Hyderabad or Gurgaon to conduct surveys for preparation of DPR. Local knowledge are not sought and social issues not considered. Very often DPRs are copy pasted documents without considering the topography/Geology of the region. Environmental issues are not addressed. A case in point is the road construction between Patkai College and Kuki Dolong. Perhaps tunneling could have been thought of, (and it is very feasible and economically viable) then a lot of time could have been saved, damage to property and environment minimized and maintenance cost in the long run would have been cheaper.
Award of contracts:
Globally, the accepted practice for awarding contracts is to follow `Public Procurement rules’. There are 3 categories of procurement, namely, procurement of:
a) Goods
b) Services (like consultancy) and
c) Works (Civil works)
In absence of Public procurement act, till 2017 most of the States were following the General Finance Rules (GFR) to award contracts. 2 States, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had enacted Public procurement laws even before the Union Govt. A public procurement system can be said to be functioning well if it achieves the objectives of transparency, competition, economy and efficiency, fairness and accountability. While the system may not be able to wipe out corrupt practices completely, it will ensure a transparent process for award of contracts. It is time for Govt of Nagaland to enact public procurement rules.
Implementation, supervision and quality control:
In the Nagaland context, Engineers of project authorities visit their work sites only when some VIPs are visiting otherwise the job of supervision is left entirely in the hands of lower level supervisors of the contracting firm thus leading to poor quality control. Years ago, due to structural failure the indoor stadium at Kohima collapsed killing a few labours. A new bridge near Satoi failed and a Truck fell into the river. Reasons for such failures were entirely due to lack of supervision and quality control. Unfortunately punitive measures were never taken against the erring officers. A system which does not punish the guilty will not produce anything of quality. The Govt needs to put in place strict measures to ensure that Engineers are taking site visits seriously to ensure quality work and timely implementation of projects. Log books maintained at work sites should be closely monitored.
