In its latest report tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said ITS was introduced keeping in view the tremendous increase in traffic during the Commonwealth Games to establish state-of-the-art traffic management centres.

The CAG said neither did the Delhi Police, as per the Manual of Policies and Procedures of Employment of Consultants, constitute a Consultancy Evaluation Committee, which is required to carry out the consultant selection procedure for projects costing over Rs.10 lakh, nor did it constitute a Consultancy Monitoring Committee (CMC) to monitor the progress of the assignment and assess the quality of deliverables.

Rather, the Delhi Police directly appointed RITES as a consultant after seeking approval of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. This was done in 2009 for pre-investment activity and this led to delays in finalisation and inviting tenders and deficiencies in tender document.

“The Delhi Police appointed the consultant in February 2009, however, it invited tender in March 2010 for Cyber Highway i.e., after 13 months and again in July 2011. However it could not award the work due to non-response in the first tender process and scrapping of tender due to deficiencies,’’ the report observed. So it said, “ITS could not be implemented during 11 Plan even after incurring expenditure of Rs.7.50 crore. Thus Delhi Police by not following the manual, could not ensure due planning and diligence in appointment of the consultant and implementation of ITS resulting in non-implementation of the project and unfruitful expenditure of Rs.7.50 crore.’’ The CAG also found the reply of the Delhi Police in the matter “not acceptable’’ on the ground that the consultant was appointed on nomination basis’’ and the Purchase Committee on whose recommendation the tender was scrapped was not a CMC which would monitor the performance of the consultant.

In the case of the “City Video Surveillance System’’, which was one of the plan schemes of the Delhi Police during the 10 Plan and was undertaken to counter the “ill-designs of terrorists, control of crime, strengthening and upgrading the existing VVIP security apparatus and better traffic management,’’ the CAG noted that there was underutilisation of funds.

Source-http://www.thehindu.com/