15-point charter of action to tone up CPWD

The government Wednesday drew up a 15-point charter of action to tone up the CPWD, asking the agency to ensure time frames for each construction activity and file clearance besides action for project delay.

According to a urban development ministry release, the working of Central Public Works Department (CPWD) was reviewed on the initiative of Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu at a two-day brainstorming session held here.

During the review that concluded late Tuesday evening, Naidu voiced his concerns over public perception about functioning of the major construction organisation of the government.

The release said a 15-point charter of action has been drawn up to improve the functioning of the CPWD.

The department has been asked to evolve Standard Operating Procedures, including specific time frames for each construction activity.

The charter says project details should be made available online and via "information display boards" at all work sites with cost, schedule, features, contact of person for complaints and reasons for delay, if any.

It said accountability should be enforced by taking action against officers responsible for delays while payments to contractors should be made via electronic mode only.

The charter calls for decentralised decision making to avoid delays. "Only substantial and policy issues to be referred to CPWD headquarters while regional heads to dispose of/resolve all other issues."

It says file clearance should not take more than five days, adding sufficient number of contractors should be empanelled for better response to tenders.

The charter says third party audit of works by organisations with no conflict of interest should be undertaken for which services of reputed institutions like IITs can be availed and there should be zero tolerance for irregularities.

It says there should be mandatory field inspection visits by senior officers and regular submission of inspection reports besides review for correctional interventions for timely execution of projects.

The charter says punctuality should be ensured by introducing bio-metric attendance marking systems and cleanliness should be ensured at all offices and work sites.

It also calls for immediate measures to make government buildings energy efficient while assuring of "sensitive administration" by addressing genuine individual problems of employees, including posting of spouses as per government guidelines.

Naidu urged the CPWD to go by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of "skill, speed and scale" and assured there would be no political interference in its functioning.

The minister said he will write to all chief ministers to enable design certification by CPWD architects to do away with further approval by local bodies.

The meeting reviewed 702 projects and found that about 400 of them were behind schedule due to delay in approvals by local bodies and environment clearances.

The release said CPWD will seek replacement of budgetary mode of funding by a non-lapsable mode to address delays in release of funds.

Naidu directed CPWD to update status of all the 2,900 ongoing projects on the web-based Project Monitoring System and provide information like sanction date, work commencement, scheduled date of completion and reasons for any delay.