GCC cancels 150 tenders for violations

Chennai: Greater Chennai Corporation has cancelled about 150 low-value tenders worth ₹17 crore floated weeks ahead of the last assembly polls, citing multiple irregularities.

GCC commissioner G S Sameeran said they reviewed a batch of tenders floated before the Feb-March period when the model code of conduct was in place, and found multiple irregularities. “Contractors were not given enough time to bid, and in some tenders, quotations were directly given to a single contractor without bidding too,” he said, adding that as the tenders aroused suspicion, they withheld them.He said tenders should be open for participation for at least seven days, but many of these tenders did not follow that pattern.

“The tender rules permit direct quotation to contractors too, but those are generally used only for emergency works such as flood emergency or a chief minister or prime minister’s event, for last-minute bandobust and preparations. In such cases, we cannot wait for bidding, and we send a quotation to the contractor.

But these clauses cannot be misused for routine tenders,” the commissioner said.Many of the cancelled tenders were for works, including road cuts, demolition and reconstruction of public buildings such as anganwadis, toilets, canal side bank walls and beautification of parks.

The commissioner said they have not dropped the works but have cancelled the tenders alone. The commissioner has issued a detailed circular urging authorities to do open tendering through the TN Tenders portal or GeM platform for small works.The circular bars officials from insisting on site certificates, machinery availability certificates or similar approvals from engineers as a pre-qualification condition, noting such practices could expose bidder identities before tendering and lead to misuse.

Instead, bidders may submit self-certification for site visits and machinery availability.The civic body also made it mandatory for earnest money deposits (EMD), security deposits and bank guarantees to be submitted only through online modes to improve transparency.GCC further instructed that bill of quantities (BOQ), tender conditions and related documents must be uploaded immediately after tender publication to give bidders adequate time to assess project scope and site conditions.