THE BROKEN BRIDGE

 Reed city where I live has an arterial bridge over the river. It was built many years ago and recently cracks were discovered in it. These were propped up and a contract was floated for renovation of the bridge. Two firms A and B qualified to do the renovation. Both firms had skilled structural engineers though firm B had more experience and was recognized for having satisfactorily done similar jobs. Only their quotation was higher than A’s. They had quoted approximately 7 million rupees to do the job which was estimated to be high value, whereas firm A had quoted nearly 6 million. The Minister in charge (MIC) summoned the chief engineer and discussed the estimates. After that as was the practice in such cases Firm B was called for negotiating prices as firm B was believed to be more competent. After three rounds of talks during which the finance representative of the government was present, firm B agreed to complete the work for 6.5 million rupees. The proposal was sent up to the Chief Minister (CM) for his concurrence.

The CM was an experienced man in such matters and he discussed the matter threadbare. He said “I hope all aspects have been studied and there were no lacunae. This is a high value contract and the leader of the opposition (LOP) will be waiting to find flaws. I don’t want my name sullied.”

MIC convinced CM about the correctness of the decision and the contract was awarded to firm B.

MIC was later at home speaking to his wife when he said “I’ve told you about the bridge repair contract. We have awarded the contract to a firm whose president is well-known to me. I had a lot of convincing to do with the CM but I succeeded.”  She listened in silence. MIC continued “The president is aware of the payoff due to me. The money will come in due course.”

She said “Very good; I hope you haven’t forgotten about the diamond bracelets I wanted. You had said you would let me buy them when you get the money.”

He said enthusiastically “I’ll tell you when the money comes. You can then go ahead and order them.”

She was extremely delighted.

Once the contract was signed work on renovating the bridge started. All bigwigs including the CM, the MIC and the chief engineer regularly visited the bridge site and kept a close watch so that the completion date was not extended. There were a couple of fatal accidents while the repair was in progress: One of the welders slipped and fell into the river and lost his life. The president of the firm was called for an inquiry. There he said to MIC “You can see the expenditure we’ve to incur in compensation. The welder had worked taking off his harness which was a violation of procedure. Our higher quotation had included compensating all these slip ups. But you chose to downsize the contract value.”

MIC laughed and said “I know you always express disappointment when you’ve to pay.”

The president nodded and said “Not without reason.” He paused and added “I hope you’ve received your payment which I made in cash.”

MIC said hastily “You always keep up your word. I’m satisfied.”

The bridge renovation was completed well in time. The CM inaugurated the renovated bridge amidst much fanfare. Traffic was restored and all were happy. However within 90 days of the repair cracks started appearing on the bridge which caused concern. LOP lost no time in accusing government for for failure to repair the cracks though the firm which had said it would rectify all defects at its cost. The firm was itself baffled by the defects which appeared which it considered minor.

LOP said “I insist on an inquiry into the defects which have appeared in the bridge.”

CM tried his best to calm down LOP. He explained “The firm is still investigating the reasons and believes the defects are minor. It believes the recent earthquake and the heavy rains may have something to do with it.”

LOP laughed and said “The quake was very minor and we wouldn’t have known it had occurred if it hadn’t been announced in the media. The rain fell heavily on only two days. The defects couldn’t have appeared due to these reasons. I suspect payoffs have been made while getting into the contract. We choose a firm which has quoted high and find ourselves in this quagmire! I urge an inquiry.”

Despite strong defense by CM an inquiry was ordered. It was to be conducted by the high ranking Accountant General and a retired chief engineer Hastings by name.

The president of the firm who was a structural engineer himself explained about the faults that were reported and how they were repaired. He said “These are new minor surface cracks which have appeared. They are not structural and are being attended to at our cost. The bridge will be good as new in a week.”

Several visits were made to observe different parts of the bridge. The findings were kept confidential.

LOP had alleged that payoffs had been made while issuing the order. The Accountant General who had been conducting the inquiry said “I feel there is sometḥing fishy in the allocation of the contract. There could’ve been payoffs. It needs to be investigated further from that angle.”

The government accepted the recommendation and a Mr.Dunbar was asked to investigate.

The bank accounts of MIC were investigated but nothing incriminating was found. He had had a clean record. It was so declared.

In the end it happened this way: The defects in the bridge were corrected by the firm to which it had been contracted.

That morning at 10, the jeweler who had supplied the diamond bracelets to Mrs.MIC was talking to his son the junior partner. “Lucky Mrs.MIC  had paid us the full amount in cash. I heard there is some inquiry about MIC’s finances. If so who knows what would be the outcome and if we would have got the money at all?”

Around the same time the Accountant General who had investigated the case said to Hastings who was also in the inquiry committee “I’ve finalized the report. Here it is. You can read it and sign it also. We have found without a shadow of doubt that the contract was duly fulfilled and work has been done satisfactorily.”

END