After work orders, now civic body to make purchases transparent

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), having put all work orders on its website over the last few months, now wants to bring in transparency in its procurement system. The civic body has started posting all procurement proposals on its portal to invite suggestions and objections from citizens and field experts so that tax payers' money is not wasted due to wrongful procurement.

Chief accountant (finance) Ram Dhas said many a time due to lack of up-to-date knowledge within officials the civic body ends of purchasing things that are outdated or not suitable for Mumbai conditions. "Every time there is a proposal to procure a product or service of BMC through the process of tendering, we will put it up on the website before the tendering process is initiated. Citizens can give their suggestions if they are aware of better technologies. For example, we procured the jet-patching machines in 2008 which have been lying idle since they are not technically feasible for city roads. In such a case, a field expert like an engineer could have given his suggestions in advance," said Dhas.

The BMC will allow a month for suggestions and objections, based on which tender conditions will be modified. From now on, every proposal will be put under the `Tenders' section of the BMC website www.mcgm.gov.in.

"This will be helpful for procurements by the BMC's health department as a lot of expert feedback will be available while purchasing important medical machinery," said Dhas.

In April, the BMC ensured that Mumbaikars have direct access to information about work orders. The civic body, after facing allegations of corruption, has been making these details available on its website to eliminate instances of bogus work orders.

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