Editor’s note: This is the second part of a series that looks into the irregularities in Kerala government’s Life Mission project.
Read the first part here.
The Life Mission Project in Wadakkanchery in Kerala’s Thrissur district is mired in controversy over a Rs 4.25 crore commission paid by the construction company - Unitac - to those who helped it win the contract to build a housing complex and a hospital. Red Crescent Dubai had allotted Rs 20 crore for the project.
The bribe amount would have funded houses for another 106 people under the Life Mission.
The bribe would eventually affect the quality of construction too as the contractors have to build the same number of flats at a reduced budget.
The question remains as to who would be held responsible if the flats developed faults. Experts in the field of construction say that when more than 20 per cent of a project's amount is spent on bribes, it would affect the quality and safety of the project
Besides, the contractor appeared to have violated the foreign exchange regulations too as it paid around Rs 3 crore of the bribe in dollars. Investigating agencies are now checking how the contractor converted such a large sum into dollars.
Other violations
Apart from the aforementioned, six other commitments in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Life Mission and Red Crescent appeared to have been violated in the Wadakkanchery project.
Here are the stipulations that are violated.
• The project must have a separate contract.
• The project estimate, budget and plan should be submitted.
• It should be specified between whom the correspondence and communication related to the project will take place.
• The purpose of the project should be documented.
• The liabilities, responsibilities and obligations of the project should be recorded.
• Details of the amount spent on the project should be recorded.
Life Mission Phase- II
“Many of the problems in Life Mission Phase II software remain unresolved. It has been decided to use the services of a software developer of the startup company that developed Life Mission's mobile application,” said an order issued by the Local Self-government Department on June 1, 2019. “The appointment can be made for a salary of Rs 1,10,000. The money for this can be taken from the Rs 5 crore set aside for Life Mission’s administrative expenses,” the order read.
The software for the Life Mission’s second phase had many glitches. Information Kerala Mission (IKM), the government agency that developed the software, has refused to provide any support. So, the software problems that the IKM should have fixed for free are now being rectified by a private company for a fee of Rs 1.10 lakh a month. No tender or letter of interest was invited before selecting the service provider.
Apparently, this was done to serve the interests of former IT secretary M Sivasankar. He was suspended on July 16 due to the controversy over his alleged links to some accused in a gold smuggling case. But he was involved in Life Mission’s activities till August 4.
Software development
In the wake of the controversy in utilising the services of a startup company, Life Mission officials have now asked it to complete within a month the tasks that were to be finished in three months.
The Technopark-based startup was awarded the contract without a tender for the only reason that it had developed the mobile application that was used to collect data for the second phase of Life Mission.
Even though the first phase of Life Mission was a success, IKM was asked to develop the software for the second phase due to concerns over sharing information with a private company. But data collection got affected due to problems in the software developed by IKM.
Subsequently, the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Kerala (IIITMK) was given the responsibility of developing a software for the third phase and IKM was removed. An amount of Rs 38.70 lakh will be spent for this in the first six months; the expense for a year will be Rs 77 lakh.
If one goes by the government’s estimate that each house under the Life Mission will cost Rs 4 lakh, then it will be spending an amount that could build 19 houses on just arranging the software for the project. And the government establishment that should be doing this for free is doing nothing.
Sivasankar’s interest
It is learnt that M Sivasankar had suggested that the contract be awarded to the same company that had developed the mobile application for Life Mission.
Though there was no tender issued or a letter of interest invited, authorities did not dare to disregard Sivasankar's instructions.
The software developed for the first phase of Life Mission could provide every little bit of information. It had details of the number of beneficiaries in each panchayat and the amount spent. However, this information could not be uploaded in the second stage due to the software glitch. The state-level empowered committee that met under the chief secretary to find a solution to the problem decided to hand over the task to IIITMK.
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Reporting team: Jayan Menon, Zakir Hussain, M.A. Johnson, Jayachandran Ilankath, K. Jayaprakash Babu, Mahesh Guptan, Ramesh Ezhuthachan, Arun Ezhuthachan, Mintu P. Jacob, Nahas Muhammad, Joji Simon, Pratheesh G. Nair, Naseeb Karatil, Shinto Joseph, Jiku Varghese Jacob and Sijith Payyannur.
Compilation: Ajish Muraleedharan
Tomorrow: What is happening in Wadakkanchery flats