The competent authority should take immediate action against Cartels

Admin

For immediate and urgent Attention of Railway Minister, Chairman/CEO RlyBd, Board Members, CVC, and all concerned authorities having any stake in Indian Railways Policy Making

Necessary action should be taken by Competent Authority against the Executives involved in the Cartel Game Played in PSUs – like IRCON, RVNL, RailTel etc. – Tendering Racket. But, the Authority has not taken any action:

a) Against the Contractors involved in the Racket.

b) No action has been taken against the Parties where tenders have already been Awarded. A microscopic survey should be done of the performance of Contractors awarded with such Contracts.

c) Since no such action has been taken against the Contractors in IRCON, the same type of Game plan is continued in All the Zonal Railways, whether it is Construction or Works or Open line Tenders for EPC, Composite or Normal Tenders.

d) The game starts-

i) First to Assess the Bidding Qualification and Capacity of the prospective Contractors.

ii) once it is assessed, then the Value of the Tender is decided on the basis that the minimum number of Contractors are qualified. Then, these big Contractors are dividing the tenders among themselves by supporting each other.

For example: if there is a work of  90/100 crores in one Railway. Where in the past the highest value of S&T works was ever awarded mostly 25/30 crores. Those contractors who have completed such works are now eligible to bid up to 40 to 60 crore Single Tenders. For such tenders which are 40 to 60 crores, more than 25/30 Contractors may be qualified in the country. But, some of the concerned authorities – who are also the members of the Cartel – are floating the tenders worth Rs. 80/100 crores so that all medium range Contractors are eliminated from Bidding and healthy competition, and only a few 4/5 Contractors are made eligible.

In the process, gradually the growing number of Contractors of the Zonal Railways who have been working in the Zones for more than 20/25 years will be eliminated and only Big Contractors will be left.

Hence, the competent authority is requested for immediate Action against such Cartels.

Nowadays a lot of games are played by these Cartels under the definition of “SIMILAR NATURE OF WORKS”

For example: The very very technical works – like tunnel Communication works – of small/medium/high value/very very high value, the past work of OFC/QUAD cable, station Telecom works, GSM R works or MPLS etc. are made qualified for such tenders, which is a different technology/work required for Tunnel Communication work.

In the process, the contractor who has experience in Tunnel Communication works even 10/15 km irrespective of value is not eligible for such tenders. In railways, the OFC and Quad cables are always supplied by Railways free of cost, hence, even if the contractor has laid 100s of KM of such cables, the value will always remain less (zero) because the value of cables supplied by Railways is not Counted for the eligibility Criteria.

Therefore, for fair and justified  Conditions, All S&T contractors should be made qualified with a mandatory condition of experience of similar type of work irrespective of value for technical qualification and the value of tender, the past value of such tenders must be seen/observed so that experienced Contractors can also participate in such tenders.

Qualifying criteria for Normal works tender/EPC/Composite Tenders:

It is surprising to note that there are different qualifications for the above types of Tenders. This is very critical to meet for most of the Contractors irrespective of their Level, Turnover, and Experience in a Particular Line i.e. Engineering, OHE, Electrical, Signalling, and Telecom tenders.

#Tenders #Cartel #IRCON #RVNL #RailTel #Contractors #Engineering #Electrical #OHE #Signalling #Telecom #Workstender #Composite #EPC #TunnelCommunicationWorks