‘No pay for contractors if bills not given in 45 days’

MUMBAI: In a bid to curb their nexus with corporators, the BMC has decided not to pay contractors of civil works if they fail to produce bills within 45 days of completion of a project. The move is a part of the civic body’s measures to tighten the noose around contractors.
According to an official, the contractor will have to submit bills within a fortnight of completion of a project to avail of full payment.“If the bills are submitted between 15 and 30 days, 5% of the amount will be deducted. Then, roughly 10% will be deducted if the bills are submitted between 30 and 45 days,” said an official.
R S Kuknoor, chief engineer (planning and development), said: “If bills are submitted after 45 days, the BMC will not pay the contractors.”
Earlier this month, an internal note by the BMC’s chief accountant (finance) highlighted the nexus between corporators and civil works contractors. It was then that the civic body decided to come up with a new set of vigilance measures.
The note mentioned that corporators abetted malpractices carried out by contractors for ward-level civil works. It asked for a policy decision to discontinue issuing contracts for minor works at the ward level for the next two years, citing large-scale corruption in the execution of such projects.
As another measure, the civic body had decided to reduce the scope of civil works that contractors can handle; it reduced the number of contractors involved from 110 to 67 at a given point of time. In the latest revision, the civic body decided to further reduce the number of contractors to 30. However, members of the standing committee objected to the reduction, saying the specified number of contractors would not be enough to handle the work.