SHILLONG, Dec 27 - A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has exposed the Meghalaya Government�s alleged wrong claims, apathy and lack of planning and monitoring in implementation of road projects under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).
Under the RIDF, the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) provides loans up to 90 per cent for improving rural road connectivity. The remaining 10 per cent has to be borne by the State Government.
As per NABARD�s guidelines, the State Government must have a master plan indicating the existing roads and the road projects that need to be taken up. The Meghalaya Government, however, is yet to have such a plan.
The CAG audited RIDF roads projects for the past five years from 2013-14 to 2017-18. Altogether 40 projects with a total cost of Rs 77.85 crore have been audited. These were either completed or ongoing projects.
The classic instance of how the guidelines were flouted could be the construction of 2-km-long Pasyih-Pamluti-Pammanik road at a cost of Rs 1.77 crore under the North Jowai Division, Jaintia Hills.
�The road ends in the middle of a private paddy field,� the CAG report pointed out.
As per RIDF guidelines, the road projects must give people better access to towns and markets. Just 12 projects, out of the 40, were physically audited by officials from the CAG office and the State Government. Three roads and one bridge were not connected to any pucca road, which is a clear violation of the guidelines.
There were also alleged lapses in quality control checks. Quality tests of building materials were not carried out at the PWD�s Road Research Laboratory (RRL).
The State Government said materials were not tested at the RRL because �for testing the quality of materials there are laboratories at the district level and also those of the contractors executing the projects.�
The State Government also failed to submit project proposals and detailed project reports to the NABARD on time during 2013-14 and 2015-16.
Due to this apathy on the part of the Planning and PWD departments, projects worth Rs 135 crore could not be taken up. �Reasons for such indifference from these departments (Planning, PWD) were not available on record,� the report said.
The State Government also submitted �wrong claims� and received excess loan reimbursement of Rs 1.4 crore from the NABARD. There were also undue benefits given to the contractors like overpayment of bills.
Delay in projects cost the State Rs. 35.81 crore. Moreover, there have been deviations from the DPRs.
Then there was no �defect liability clause� in the agreements with the contractors, which means that a contractor can get away by constructing a substandard road.
There was also slack monitoring by the NABARD because it failed to pull up the State Government for flouting the guidelines.