Tasavur Mushtaq
SRINAGAR
Assuring government undertaking PSUs of budgetary support, finance minister Dr Haseeb Drabu laid condition for the corporations that they will compete for business, including government business in the open market.
He while talking about SRTC said that the corporation is exclusive transporting agency for the CAPD and as per government order carry food grains to various parts of the state.
He raising question said that the SRTC in turn sub-contracts it to private transporters with a commission / margin as high as 56 per cent. He said he wanted to know if this system was poor contracting or inefficient pricing or plain corruption.
Dr Drabu also talked about R&B department where he mentioned that the department gives a contract for a road, it supplies bitumen procured from private players or cement procured from a state corporation. Not only is the price invariably higher than the market, it breeds and perpetuates inefficiencies and transactional corruption in the system, Drabu said.
He laid emphasis that “procurement systems need to be made transparent and market friendly.”
