AP statutory judicial panel receives first case for scrutiny

The statutory Andhra Pradesh Judicial Commission, which is mandated to conduct a preview of public tenders for all works over Rs 100 crore in value, received its first case related to engagement of a service provider to run the 108 ambulance service for judicial scrutiny.

The Medical and Health Department submitted the tender proposal to the judicial commission, headed by retired High Court judge B Siva Sankara Rao, for scrutiny.

The state government will pay more than Rs 100 crore per annum to the service provider for operating the 108 ambulance service across the state.

There are over 600 ambulances in the state now and the government has been paying Rs 1.35 lakh per month to run each of these.

A sum of over Rs 97.20 crore is being paid by the state government to the private service provider every year to run the service.

The government has decided to increase the fleet by at least 100 ambulances and the maintenance expenditure will proportionately go up over Rs 100 crore per annum, official sources said.

Hence, the tender has been referred to the judicial commission for preview, the sources added.

"The Commission has sought some clarifications and we have given the replies. The tender will be put up online for public perusal next week," Medical and Health Principal Secretary K S Jawahar Reddy said here on Friday.

The AP Infrastructure (Transparency throughJudicialPreview) Act, 2019, passed by the state Legislature in July, mandates putting any government tender for infrastructure works of Rs 100 crore and more forjudicialscrutiny before awarding the contracts.

The judges recommendations will be binding on the government, as per the legislation.

In all 25 sectors like roads and bridges, urban development (including smart cities), health, ports, airports, water supply, inland water transport, telecommunications, highways and power, including projects under public-private partnership initiative, would be covered under the new law.