Viral audio hints at contractors’ association office-bearers demanding bribe from contractor

BENGALURU: A scandal has rocked the Karnataka State Contractors’ Association, with allegations of corruption and bribery against some of its top office-bearers. An audio recording has gone viral, allegedly featuring some office-bearers demanding a 3 per cent commission from some small contractors who had bid for some government projects.

The officials, including Jagannath G Shivaji, honorary president of the Association, and H R Chinchali, Director, are accused of threatening contractors who refused to pay the commission. The contractors claim they were asked to pay the commission to secure projects and were given an ultimatum to comply.

The audio recording reveals the officials negotiating the commission with a contractor, eventually settling on 2.5 per cent. The office-bearers are also heard threatening a smalltime contractor to withdraw his bid as some of their own people had bid for the projects. These included across PWD, energy, urban development and irrigation departments.

In the audio clip, a contractor is heard saying he is also from the same place as one of the office-bearers and asking for the percventage of commission to be refused. To this, the office-bearer says he does not require anything and that the smaller contractor is already aware of his condition.

When the contractor asks for the percentage to be reduced, the office-bearer says he will check with his superiors and asks him to join in. He also says they cannot go against the word of the superior. The incident has raised concerns about corruption in government contracting processes with demands being raised for a fair investigation.

Reacting to the controversy, contractors’ association president Manjunath said, “There may be some culprits, but it is their personal business. By calling for package tenders, it is opening up another opportunity for corruption. We have appealed to the chief minister to drop the package tendering. We had also written a 100-page letter to the chief secretary stating no action had been taking at the government level”.