Indus Valley Times

By Prabhat Kumar Singh

Bhubaneswar, April 20: Seemingly upset with non-payment of his dues, a contractor in Odisha has adopted a novel practice to expose the corrupt practice of percentage commission, commonly known in power corridors as PC, in execution of government works.

For the beginners, PC is given by private contractors and suppliers to top government officials and ruling party politicians to obtain work orders as well as clearance of bills after execution of the projects.

In Odisha, the Opposition has always alleged rampant prevalence of the “under-the-table PC practice” in all departments of the state government.

In the present case, the concerned contractor has put up an information board of the government project he executed at Kabisuryanagar Notified Area Council (NAC) in Ganjam district. The unusual information board has been erected at Arabinda Nagar of Ward No-12 in the NAC.

In the board, the contractor who preferred not to mention his name in the information board, has written about the amount of the PC he has paid while executing the government work. He has mentioned that a sum of Rs 27,000 was paid as percentage commission to the engineer associated with the project.

While the estimated cost of the project, a community centre in Kabisuryanagar, was Rs 2,75,657, a sum of Rs 27,000 was paid towards the PC. The public works department was the executing authority of the works, the contractor mentioned.

Apart from the PC, the information board stated that Rs 31,664 was paid towards goods and services tax (GST).

“We have been alleging rampant corruption in the execution of government works, but the ruling party leaders have always refuted the charge. Prevalence of PCs in work execution is a serious malady. The works executed by the contractors does not last for long and results in complete misutilisation of public funds,” said Biranchi Tripathy, state BJP spokesperson.