Mumbai's civic agency hires third-party auditors for quality-check of road works

The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation is yet again relying on old methods for road quality supervision depite the past attempts being futile. The civic agency has hired third-party audiotr for road quality maintenance supervision and to evaluate road repair projects.

A report in the Midday stated that the BMC has picked the seven firms to suprevise road works and Rs 3.22 crore of the taxpayers' money will be used for this endeavour.

These auditors are also looking into the ongoing trench and road repairs worth Rs 161.48 crore which began nearly three months ago after BMC issued an order in connection with the same.

According to the proposal, BMC has hired project management firms (PMAs) to conduct an independent audit of road construction between 2013 and 2015. However, the organisations received flak for their inability to produce quality work and falling short of the civic body's expectations.

The BMC has asserted that the agencies' flaws have been corrected.

Why has the BMC opted for third-party auditor?

Midday report stated that an RTI revealed that junior engineers and assistant engineers who are in charge off the audits are occupied with attending meetings, resolving grievances and creating tenders etc because of which they don't get enough time to supervise road works in the city and thus BMC has hired third-party PMAs.

A civic expert, Rajesh Gupta, was cited saying that it is not wrong to hiring third-party firm but entire responsibility cannot be delegated to these private entities because civic engineers are budy; they should oversee projects, he added.

Former Opposition leader in BMC, Ravi Raja echoed similar views and stated that a complaint should be brought against the company in question and a blacklist should be created if the roads are of poor quality despite their audit or in case of a fraud in their presence.