The MDA government has rejected claims that the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department violated norms to award Rs 1,900-crore projects to a firm from outside Meghalaya, with Cabinet Minister and government spokesperson Wailadmiki Shylla asserting that the tender process was transparent and criteria-based.
Addressing allegations of favouritism, Shylla said every allotment under the department goes through a defined tendering framework.
“For any tendering process, for any allotment, there are certain sets of criteria or credentials. You have to have certain credentials and experience,” he said on Tuesday. He stressed that the selection was not arbitrary.
“The government has followed the process in all of this infrastructure. All the required criteria were fulfilled,” Shylla said.
He further stated that the norms were not designed to benefit a single bidder. “It does not mean we have created rules that only that person can come and participate,” Shylla said.
The clarification comes after opposition parties questioned the award of multiple Jal Jeevan Mission projects worth Rs 1,900 crore to a company based outside the state.