Govt snubs Jethmalani; okays MRTS award

The Government’s approval of the award comes close on the heels of its referring the MS Shoes case to the Ministries of Finance and Law, a decision already viewed as a rebuff to Jethmalani’s stand.

Bureaucratic circles view the developments as a vindication of the stand taken by their colleague, Aggarwal, who is also president of the IAS Officers Association. Aggarwal was divested of her key responsibilities by Jethmalani, following their differences.

Jethmalani was not available forcomment. Sources said the Empowered Committee of Secretaries, headed by Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar, cleared the GC award to the Pacific Consultants International (PCI)-led consortium, earlier this week. The committee is learnt to have re-examined the tender procedure and found it to be in order.

Jethmalani had alleged that the manner in which the GC award was given was questionable, as the criteria for technical evaluation were kept secret from the bidders.

He also questioned why only the company’s bid, ranked first (according to the DMRC’s technical evaluation), was opened and others not given a chance to quote their rates. The minister also hinted at malafide action on the part of senior officials of his ministry and the DMRC as the company which bagged the GC award later brought its rates down from Rs 440 crore to Rs 208 crore, following negotiations with the DMRC. The DMRC had denied these charges and maintained its award was above board.

Following differences with Aggarwal over the MRTSproject (she was DMRC’s ex-officio chairman), Jethmalani wrote to the prime minister, calling for an inquiry into the GC award.

The GC is said to be a key aspect of the MRTS project, as it will not only recommend the methodology of construction, but also evaluate all the technical parameters of the project.

Apart from Pacific Consultants International, the four companies of the consortium are Tonichi (Japan), JART (Japan), Parsons-Brinkenhoff (USA) and RITES (India). The issue was then referred to the Committee of Secretaries. Sources said that subsequent to the Government’s approval, the GC award was cleared by the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) of Japan yesterday, paving the way for the start of the considerably delayed MRTS project.

The OECF is providing 56 per cent of the Rs 4,500-crore project as soft loan to the Government, and had made the release of funds conditional to the GC’s speedy selection.

The MRTS project and MS Shoes case were at the core of the minister’s clash withSecretary Kiran Aggarwal. With the Government choosing to ignore Jethmalani’s objections on both these and instead endorsing Aggarwal’s stand, the stage is set for a fresh round of controversy.