War on corruption: Third-party consultants to audit development works in J&K

Srinagar, Feb 11: Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to appoint third-party consultants for auditing development works executed by Public Works Department.

An official document accessed by The Kashmir Monitor revealed that the Directorate of Designed, Quality Control, and Inspection has been appointed the nodal agency for implementing quality control mechanism.

The nodal agency has been asked to empanel consultants or quality monitors in different fields including roads, buildings, and bridges.

It said that a consultant has to be a below 65 years old retired civil engineer who will monitor the development projects quality-wise.

“The role of a consultant is to be more of a teacher than that of an examiner which involves conducting Independent quality tests in accordance with the standard code requirements and to verify that the quality management system is achieving its intended objectives,” the document said.

It said the nodal agency shall depute consultants to various sites for monitoring of the quality of works as per Standard Operation Procedure (S0P).

The official document said the consultants will be deputed at the district level and will be equipped with full-fledged testing equipment.

“Consultants/ or Quality Monitors will also help in developing a systemic and scientific working environment in the department besides identifying the shortcomings in the system and providing feedback to the department for rectification of the same,” the document said.

As per the document, there will be many stages of inspection by Consultants and all Executive Engineers and Assistant Executive Engineers will be responsible for getting the works inspected as per the schedule during the progress of work.

Pertinently, the administration has approved of two-tier quality control mechanism to audit projects executed by the Roads and Buildings department.

A senior official of the R&B department said the tough quality control mechanism will be put in place. “It is for the first time that the administration has decided to appoint consultants to ensure transparency in works. It is basically a quality check on the development works and the process of appointing consultants has been set into motion,” he said.