Competent authority should have rejected technical bid of LI Vendor Purneem Kumar for not submitting performance certificate and other documents which were necessary for qualifying Stage-1st of standard bidding document but the same was not done
Competent authority should have proceeded to Stage-2nd only if stage-1st had been successfully qualified by bidder , but on contrary official respondents who were hand in glove with Purneem Kumar allotted financial bid to Purneem Kumar in derogation to terms and conditions of the tender document
Despite Status Quo granted by High Court dated 13-4-2023, JMC instead of abiding by Hon’ble Court verdict, Joint Commissioner (Admin) vide No. JMC/Estt/555-58 dated 13-4-2023 allotted tender in favour of Purneem Kumar at Rs 52000/Auto per month including all the taxes for a period of one year after negation.
JMC offering undue favoritism to Purneem Kumar out of way forced M/S Urban and Rural Sanitation Club to approach High Court Jammu resulting in unnecessary litigation which could have been avoided had tender allotted on merit and as per bidding documents of tender where Purneem Kumar was not qualified to get tender
Purneem Kumar got prepared term deposit receipt from J&K Bank worth Rs 14 lacs dated 9-12-2022 in favour of Chief Account Officer, JMC well advance before bidding for tender which means that JMC before floating tender was predetermined to allot tender in favour of Purneem Kumar
GY CORRESPONDENT
jammu, apr 21
Lack of transparency and accountability in JMC functioning has resulted unnecessary litigation before competitive Courts which in turn results in huge loss of energy and time which otherwise can be utilized for development and beautification of Jammu city besides huge loss to Govt exchequer when e-tenders are not allotted on merit and most often managed in favour of blue eyed contractors to fulfill personal vested interest at the cost of serious loss to JMC exchequer. To put the things in perspective, JMC floated an e-NIT No. 23-JCA of 2022-23 dated 6-1-2023 costing Rs 93600000 for hiring of four wheeled Auto Load Carrier 150 No. plus 20% as per requirement of JMC fitted with suitable capacity Hydraulic Jack and GPS/VTMS for door to door collection of Municipal waste/garbage/waste of all types from households, commercial establishments, institution in Municipal Wards etc their transportation to & unloading at designated collection points of Jammu Municipal Corporation including driver, helper and POL. The cost of the tender document was Rs 5000 and validity of tender was one year. It deserves mentioning here that download/sale date started on 7/1/2023 at 4:00 PM and download/sale date ended on 29/1/2023 at 3:00PM. The date of submission of E-Tender started on 18-1-2023 and date of submission of E-Tender ended on 28/1/2023 at 3:00PM. The date of opening of Tender online was 30/1/2023 at 1:00 PM.
The eligibility criteria for bidders was that they should have executed similar nature of work and must have achieved an average annual financial turnover of Rs 2.10 crores during the last three years that is 2019-2020,2020-2021 & 2021-22. Bidders were required to submit undertaking for the capability to provide vehicles as per requirement of the tender and other undertakings on a single Rs 500/-stamp paper. In addition to as mentioned above was EMD amounting to Rs 14.00 lacs in favour of CAO,JMC. If the tenderers withdraw tender offer during the tender validity period, his entire EMD shall be forfeited. The E-Tender was designed in such a way that the blue eyed contractors get fitted and emerge as successful bidders.
Accordingly Six Firms namely M/S Matoo Clean House submitted bid vide No.1557706 dated 20-1-2023 at 6:42 PM , M/S Urban and Rural Sanitation Club, vide No.1554779 dated 28-1-2023 at 2:38PM,M/S Vinod Malhotra, vide No.1562171 dated 28.1.2023,Purneem Kumar, vide No. 1562247 dated 28-1-2023 at 2:43PM, Unique Sanitation and Out Sourcing Services vide No.1562005 dated 27-1-2023at 7:49 PM and UZMA Mustaq vide Bid No. 1562299 dated 28-1-2023 at 2:06PM.
It deserves mentioning here that only two Firms namely M/S Urban and Rural Sanitation Club and Purneem Kumar qualified bidding criteria and remaining four as mentioned above could not qualify due to non-submission of admitted fee prequel/technical. This status of bidders was uploaded on 4-3-2023. However sources informed that unsuccessful four bidders were asked to withdraw by writing a letter to them by JMC to accommodate predetermined and pre-decided Purneem Kumar. Accordingly tender allotted to one Purneem Kumar being lowest bidder at Rs 53690 and declared L1 Vendor according to JMC. M/S Urban and Rural Sanitation Club declared L2 Vendor at Rs 54250. Surprisingly e-procurement system govt of J&K tender summary report prepared dated 12-4-2023 at 6:26 PM. Worthwhile to mention here that L2 Vendor M/S Urban and Rural Sanitation Club aggrieved over allotment of tender to Purneem Kumar approached Hon’ble High Court Jammu under WP © No. 908/2023 dated 11-4-2023 on the ground that L1 Vendor Purneem Kumar did not submit the income tax returns for the year 2019-20 as per terms of tender notice as envisaged vide instruction No.10 ( d) of the e-tender notice at the time of submitting bidding documents. Further that L1 Vendor also didn’t submit performance certificate from two No.s end users end users for similar nature of works/services successfully rendered/completed in the last three years in conformity with the terms and conditions as envisaged under instruction 10 (d) of the tender notice. L2 Vendor further argued that the competent authority should have rejected the technical bid of LI Vendor Purneem Kumar for not submitting performance certificate and other documents as mentioned above which were necessary for qualifying Stage-1st of standard bidding document. L2 Vendor maintained that competent authority should have proceeded to Stage-2nd only if stage-1st had been successfully qualified by bidder , but on contrary, the official respondents who were hand in glove with Purneem Kumar allotted the financial bid to Purneem Kumar in derogation to terms and conditions of the tender document. Further a number of representations have been moved in this regard and this is precisely the reason that so far ,the LOA has not been issued in favour of Purneem Kumar. Moreover Purneem Kumar got prepared term deposit receipt worth Rs 14 lacs from J&K Bank dated 9-12-2022 in favour of Chief Account Officer, JMC well advance before bidding for tender which means that JMC before floating tender had intimated all the details of tender to Purneem Kumar so that by no means his bid was rejected which also means that inviting tender was mere eyewash whereas JMC was predetermined to allot tender in favour of Purneem Kumar. L2 Vendor argued before Court that Status Quo as it exists today with respect to the aforesaid e-NIT No.23 JCA of 2022-2023 dated 6-1-2023 should be maintained in the verdict of Hon’ble Court dated 13-4-2023 in presence of JMC Advocate Rajnish Raina. L2 Vendor Counsel informed JMC Authority on phone of Hon’ble Court status Quo order same day immediately after Court’s verdict. The next date of hearing was fixed on 1-5-2023.
JMC instead of abiding by Hon’ble Court verdict, Joint Commissioner (Admin) vide No. JMC/Estt/555-58 dated 13-4-2023 allotted tender in favour of Purneem Kumar s/o Sita Ram r/o South Extension 1-B Trikuta Nagar Jammu at Rs 52000/Auto per month including all the taxes for a period of one year after negation. The cost of the work shall not exceed Rs 93600000 (Nine crores thirty six lacs only). Performance security amounting to Rs 3500000 shall be released after successful completion of defect taxes. Sources however have disclosed that this allotment order was issued backdate to accommodate Purneem Kumar at any cost even by not abiding by Status Quo order of Hon’ble High Court.
Worthwhile to mention here that prior to floating the above mentioned tender costing more than nine crores annually, JMC already had personal 89 Autos four wheeler costing nearly six crores in the year 2021-2022 besides 66 E- Rickshaws worth crores under Smart City Ltd in the year 2021-2022 with charging station at Jewel Chowk for which JMC is paying. It is highly questionable that despite having enough strength of four wheeler Autos and e-Rickshaws for the purpose what was the purpose to hire 150 more four wheeler Autos costing nearly nine crores annually that to by not allotting tender on merit and accommodating Purneet Kumar against bidding documents of tender when the cleanliness index is well known to people of Jammu city. All this point to thorough investigation how Puneet Kumar managed to get tender against guidelines and necessities of tender and Maypor JMC and Commissioner JMC should immediately look into it and should ensure that tender is allotted on merit and deserving one as per bidding documents of tender.
The following points needs to be investigated by Anti Corruption Bureau :
Joint Commissioner (Adm), JMC is not competent to issue Allotment Order worth Rs. 9.36 Crores, even Commissioner, JMC does not have the competence to give approval for more than Rs. 05 crores as per the standing instructions issued by the Finance Department Vide SO No. 15 dated: 09.01.2020 regarding delegation of financial powers for allotment of contracts etc.
In the absence of competence and entitlement to issue contract order amounting to Rs. 9.36 Cr. The allotment order issued vide No. JMC/Estt/555-58 dated 13-4-2023 shall be treated as Null and Void and has no relevance.
Why the L1 bidder M/s Purmeen Kumar has prepared the EMD of Rs. 14 lacs before the commencement of Tender that clearly depicts the criminal conspiracy between L1 bidder and JMC officers which shows JMC officers already provide all the requisite documents to L1 bidder before the start of the tender.
Why the financial bid was open for only two bidders, whereas, the allotment amount is too huge @ Rs. 9.36 crores which is beyond the competence of any of the officer in JMC.
Why No Administrative and financial approval was taken from Administrative Department before opening of financial bid of two bidder and issuance of allotment @ Rs. 9.36 Cr.
Why No financial approval was taken from the Finance & Planning Standing Committee of JMC which is the prerequisite mandatory approval for incurring such a huge expenditure.
” Why No competent committee was constituted for negotiation with L1 bidder and no minutes of Meeting regarding Negotiation meeting was prepared and issued. The question arises what methodology JMC Officers adopted for negotiation and how they arrived to the final rates of Rs. 52000/- per month per auto.
” As per the clear cut direction of J&K Finance Department vide No. FD-code/152/2021-02 dated: 24.09.2021 that all the services and supplies including vehicles / Auto hiring shall be done only and only through GEM Portal then why JMC officer adopted this illegal way of giving benefits to their blue eyed contractors by publishing tenders on JK Tender and avoiding GEM Portal where mass participation is possible.
” Commissioner, JMC must resign from his post because of the failure to protect public money and wasteful expenditure in JMC
” Joint Commissioner (A) along with AEE(Mech)-Mr. Talat Mahmood Khan proposed the tender evaluation committee of low rank officer which are not competent and entitled for evaluation of a tender whose allotment cost is Rs. 9.36 crores. Therefore the technical evaluation committee report should be treated as Null and Void
” JMC already have fleet of 89 + 66 Garbage Collection Autos + around 200 plus sanitation vehicle then why and on whose recommendation, observation and calculation these 150 Auto tenders were floated.
It is a matter of the investigation that who are the officers in JMC that are involved in such a huge financial and administrative irregularities and flaunt government rules and regulations deliberately. Hon’ble LG is requested to personally intervene in the matter and cancel this allotment order and save public money and strict action shall be taken against the culprit Government Officers who is involved in corrupt practices.
