Ministry waiting for bribe to OK irrigation contract-TIMES OF INDIA

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Ministry-waiting-for-bribe-to-OK-irrigation-contract/articleshow/13429121.cms
NAGPUR: In another instance of work on irrigation projects in the region being stalled without political blessings, construction of a canal for the much-touted Gosikhurd dam has not begun even two years after the contractor bagged the deal.
The bid for building an offshoot canal on left bank of the dam was approved in 2009-10, but work order has not been issued till May 2012. Work order is issued by the irrigation ministry, and allows the bidder to start the construction.
The contract had been allotted to M/s Chakradeo Constructions, but the work order is yet to be issued from the irrigation minister's office. After the ministry gives a go-ahead, the agency - Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) in this case - issues an identification number and the job begins. In normal course, work orders are issued within three months of the tender being approved.
Shirish Chakradeo, the firm's proprietor, claims that VIDC or the ministry have not given any official reason for the delay. Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar held the portfolio when the tender was approved. "I have written letters to the ministry but there was no response from Pawar or his successor, Sunil Tatkare," says Chakradeo. His bid had been at around 2.5% mark up on the estimated price. Normally, bids go as high as 5% above the estimate.
VIDC executive director Prafulchandra Zapke refused to comment on the case, saying that the concerned contractor only would have the answer.
Sources in VIDC say that work orders are issued within 90 days, and a delay of a fortnight or so is acceptable, but it is certainly flouting the norms if the order has not been issued for a year or more. The practice of work orders being issued by the ministry started in 2005, after a letter was circulated during Ajit Pawar's regime to follow this practice.
Close to 30 tenders of other contractors too were stranded at the minister's office, but the orders were issued between six months to a year ago. Sources say even these contractors had marked up their rates below the standard 5% level.
"The orders were not issued as we did not follow the right procedure," said one of them with an oblique reference to the political bosses.
Contractors admit, only on condition of anonymity, that the practice of marking up bids by around 5% is a means to recover money paid as graft. So, if the tender is marked up by around 2%, that much can be spared for a kickback. No contractor pays such graft from his own pocket.
In the normal course, profits are assured even at the estimated price, which is normally revised after negotiations with VIDC. One of the contractors, whose work order took six months to be issued, said after negotiations the bid was approved at the estimated rates. "That was enough to earn a reasonable profit, but nothing could be spared for a kickback. However, we finally gave in and paid from our own pockets. One after other, all other work orders have been released, only Chakradeo seems to be holding out," he said.