Hyderabad: The Rs 1.8 crore silt scam, in which 27 contractors and 12 assistant engineers of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation were arrested, has not only exposed the contractors but also officials of the corporation.
In a statement given by the contractors to the Central Crime Station, they revealed how civic officials guided them to manipulate bills and what kinds of documents to submit during the rush hours to avoid an audit, and various other means to cheat the corporation.
Civic officials keep a large percentage of the money earned through scams. The contractors have turned against the GHMC for not taking action against their own officers who are equally part of the scams.
With thousands of crores allocated for infrastructure development, the potential for cheating and making a quick buck is huge.
A senior officer of the municipal corporation, on condition of anonymity, said that contractors were hand in glove with GHMC officials and even local politicians. Some of the present corporators are contractors themselves. He said that certain wings of the GHMC are very lucrative, like, for instance, the engineering wing that deals with roads.
“The contractors cheat the corporation by using sub-standard material. They will lay the specified length and width of the road but cheat with the material used. In the case of construction, they inflate the bills. If the final bill is of Rs 1 lakh, they will add additional works on paper to extract more money. The GHMC, which is poorly staffed, will not check the extra work done,” he said.
The officer said that in a case like the Rs 1.8 crore desiltation scam, it is difficult to measure the work done unless an audit was ordered.
“In the transportation wing, corporators manipulate the quantum of debris removed. In the North Zone of GHMC, a contractor was caught forging the signature of an officer for funds.”
The GHMC has managed to curb fraud to an extent by introducing e-officer and e-tendering, which has reduced the interaction between both civic officials and contractors.
