Wary of CBI, NHAI officials stop working beyond office hours

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which is
responsible for the development, maintenance and management of the country’s highways, has changed its way of working after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) unearthed a scam
involving two top officials of the authority in May.

Company officials now avoid staying in the office beyond regular hours, which has adversely affected the process of awarding contracts, sources said.

Officials fear they may have to explain to the CBI the reasons for their working beyond office hours, so choose to avoid the situation.
The CBI raided the premises of the NHAI in May this year
in connection with the alleged corruption in the tendering of
a project awarded to a Delhi-based construction company named Oriental Structural Engineering.

The investigations agency, during its frequent rounds of the NHAI headquarters in the last two months, has raised the issue of officials staying beyond office hours and advised them to refrain from doing so.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior NHAI official said, “Officials are not conducting their job in a free environment.”
“We have not been able to award a single project in the last two months. The board meetings have also not taken place for a long time now,” the official added.

Since May 2009, the authority has awarded 63 projects worth Rs56,879 crore, spanning 5,564km.

More than half of the projects were awarded between December 2009 and February 2010. In March-May this year, the authority awarded 27 contracts for national highways construction connecting around 2,400km.