Assam: APDCL extends undue benefit to contractor by making payment against undelivered materials: CAG Report

The Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) has given undue benefit to the contractor against undelivered material, this was stated as per the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) for the year ended 31 March 2020.

Notably, the report stated that the APDCL extended an undue benefit of Rs 1.87 crore to the contractor by making a payment (Rs 0.60 crore) against undelivered materials and releasing the LD amount (Rs 1.27 crore) despite the delay in the completion of work.

Further, the Comptroller recommended that APDCL take necessary steps against the contractor to complete the work and fix responsibility for the lapse and ensure effective monitoring of scheme implementation according to guidelines to avoid the recurrence of such irregularities.

On the other hand, the compliance audit paragraphs included highlighted deficiencies in the management of PSUs other than the Power sector in which lapses in tendering and contract management of the EoDB project enabled the vendor to submit invoices of Rs 43.73 crore against an original work order of Rs 2 crore, with payment of Rs 18.51 crore already being made, despite doubts being raised on the reasonableness of the rates and the claims. 

To this, it was recommended that the state government may consider fixing accountability for such poor management of the EoDB single window clearance system project, which appears almost deliberate in nature and designed to benefit the Vendor at the cost of the public exchequer.