Delhi LG nod for CBI probe in alleged irregularities in procurement of DTC buses

Delhi Lt Governor V.K. Saxena has approved the Chief Secretary's proposal to forward the complaint, received by the LG Secretariat in the matter of gross irregularities in the procurement of 1,000 low floor buses by the DTC, to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The complaint dated on June 9, 2022, addressed to the LG, highlighted the appointment of Minister of Transport as the Chairman of the Committee for tendering and procurement of buses by DTC in a pre-mediated manner.

The complaint also has pointed out the appointment of DIMTS as bid management consultant for this tender with an aim to facilitate wrongdoing and the irregularities in the bid of July 2019 for procurement of 1000 low floor BS-IV and BS-VI buses and bid of March 2020 for purchase and annual maintenance contract of low floor BS-VI buses.

The complaint was forwarded to the Chief Secretary for eliciting the comments from the concerned departments of GNCTD and recommending the way forward.

However, the report thereafter submitted by the Chief Secretary underlined serious discrepancies in the tendering process, blatant deviation from the CVC guidelines and GFR and deliberate co-option of DIMTS as a consultant so that the discrepancies in the tender process could be endorsed.

A source with the LG office said that the report substantiated the claims made in the complaint and the same discrepancies were clearly brought out in a report by the Deputy Commissioner, DTC.

"The DTC had floated the tender with RFP No CGM/SBU/924/2019/AC for procurement of 1000 buses and it was a single tender for supply of 1000 BS-IV or latest buses. In the pre bid, the quantity of 1000 buses was bifurcated into 400 BS-IV buses and 600 BS-VI buses but the tender still remained one only and the bidders could have made the bid for the entire quantity of these buses of both types," the report said.

As per the report, TATA Motors Ltd made a bid for 600 buses only. At the same time, JBM made bid for 1000 buses (400 BS-IV and 600 BS-VI) at a rate higher than Tata Motors. In effect, JBM became the single bidder and therefore, the tender should have been rejected and fresh tender should have been called by the Tender Committee.

However, the bidding consultant (DIMTS) and the Tender Committee of DTC did not correctly evaluate the financial bids. The Committee declared M/S TATA Motors Ltd eligible for the bid of 600 BS-VI buses.

The report by the Chief Secretary also brings out clearly that the committee headed by OP Aggrawal, IAS (retd) to look into the charges of irregularities and corruption in the procurement of buses in June 2021, in its report submitted in August 2021, clearly indicted the AAP government for "procedural deviations in the entire tendering and procurement procedure".

On the basis of this, Chief Secretary recommended to refer the matter to CBI, and that has been approved by the LG VK Saxena.