ITANAGAR, 7 Feb: The Arunachal Anti-Corruption Sena (AACS) has requested the chief secretary to look into the alleged “lapses in release of retention money/advance payment to the contractor of the Seppa-Chayang Tajo road” in East Kameng district “without a valid bank guarantee and expiry of extension of time.”
In a letter to the chief secretary, the AACS claimed that the contractor, Gammon Engineers Contractor Pvt Ltd, had “not resubmitted or revalidated the expired bank guarantee, due to which the contract is not live.”
It claimed that the extended time for completion expired on 31 December, 2021, and yet the contractor has “already drawn huge advance in the form of secured advance, running bill advance even by his sub-contractors.”
It also alleged that the department allowed the contractor/sub-contractors to “demobilize men and machinery deployed for the construction of the Seppa-Chayang Tajo road without prior approval of the competent authority of the state government,” as well as proposed to “release retention money without following contract rules/agreement.”
“Any attempt to release the retention money in the absence of a valid bank guarantee by the PWD, namely the western zone chief engineer and executive engineer, without work completion/security is undermining the laid down procedure and guidelines. Moreover, the said work is under investigation by the SIC,” it said, and sought action from the chief secretary’s end in this regard.
