Budget: BMC launches project transparency

Having faced constant criticism for malpractices such as rigging of contracts, cartelisation in road contracts, huge variations in project costs, the civic administration is planning to improve its procurement policies for allotting contracts and thus increase transparency in its working.

The BMC has planned to include full disclosure, integrity pact with vendors, e-tendering, and ensuring fair price from contractors. It also plans to upload contract details of work orders, and other specification of procurement plans on its website for citizen review. It is also planning a system of peer review and third party audit for quality assurance and quality control.

To curb its tendency of delaying projects for years, the civic body has also planned to constitute a technical advisory committee in each department to facilitate early decision making.

In yet another measure to bring in greater accountability and transparency in personal conduct of its own officials, the BMC is planning to put annual property returns of senior municipal officers on its website. Recognising that only ethical governance can bring about good governance, the civic administration is also planning to send all its employees for training programme on 'ethics in governance'. The BMC also plans to strengthen and streamline the management of engineering cadres.

Municipal Commissioner Sitaram Kunte said, "In order to establish a direct communication channel with the public at large, it is proposed to establish a BMC portal with the state of art facility to upload content including ideas," he said.

The civic body has also planned to scan 80 crore papers and display it on its website under the Right to Information Act.

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