*Major financial irregularities surfaced in the case of Bird Aviary*
Prem Garg founder of My Tree Foundation and Enviornmentlist Rahul Mahajan today pointed out major financial irregularities committed by Chandigarh Forest and Wildlife department in raising the ill conceived Bird Aviary being erected in protected Zone of lake area, where all types of construction is prohibited. Taking the plea of its being a temporary structure is misleading the courts and the public.
Audit Department have raised questions on Rs 3.38 Crore expenditure on this Under Construction project “Bird Aviary” situated inside “City Forest” adjoining Sukhna Lake indicates the major irregularities in spending the money by Chandigarh Forest and Wildlife Department. The Audit Department clearly says in its official report that the expenditure being made on this project is not justified and If in future anyone moves to court against the Department, the latter would have no answer to these financial flaws.
These financial flaws are pointed out under General Finance Rule 2017 which says, “In an order to initiate any construction, the department has to sign a contract agreement with the agency hired for construction services.”
Despite these rules, on 10 January 2020, the Chief Conservator of Forest office initiated an e-tender for the “Fabrication work of the Bird-aviary” and did not sign any agreement with the Disha Associates before allotting Rs3.38 crores of work allotment to them on 2 March 2020, resulting into undue favors to Disha Associates, by the department officials. Further Disha Associates submitted Rs. 16.90 Lakh as performance guarantee and was required to renew it after 28 February 2021, but Disha Associates did not renew the performance guarantee in violation to the agreed conditions of tender. Besides these favors, the department did not levy any fine on the agency as the latter did not complete the project within the time limit which was to expire by 2nd September 2020, because no time limit was relaxed for the agency on the official documents.
Exaggerated use of 37.348 metric ton steel without permission also points towards the glaring irregularities committed by the contractor. There was an estimate of using 256.78 metric tons of steel in constructing the structure of bird aviary, whereas the Disha Associates claims to have used 37.348 metric ton above the estimated figure and for this more expenditure was incurred above the sanctioned budget without seeking any prior permission.
There has also been evident perturbations in contruction of foundation of bird aviary and this job was also allotted to Disha associates through a separate tender, for which the department did not levy any condition of performance guarantee which is always a precondition in every construction tender.
LR Budanya wondered that for such a small city, the greenery is being looked after by three departments namely Horticulture departments of MC and UT Administration and Forest Department and there being no coordination, these generally for cross purposes. These three departments must be merged into a single department for better results and to avoid wastage of money.
The Forest Department should avoid wasting money on projects like vertical garden.
