GBA Overhauls Contractor Bill Payments with Digital, Time-Bound System
Greater Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda has directed the GBA to digitise and streamline contractor bill payments across the city's five corporations.
Greater Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda has directed the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) to revamp the way works bills are processed, with the aim of making contractor payments quicker, time-bound and more transparent.
The revised framework will apply uniformly across Bengaluru's five city corporations, covering works financed through government grants as well as those funded from the corporations' own resources.
Under the new arrangement, bills will be routed through the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS). Scrutiny will rest with the Project Management Consultant, while field engineers will handle verification and certification. Pre-audit and approval will be carried out by the Chief Engineer before payment is released. A prescribed timeline will apply at every one of these stages.
To prevent files from stalling, a bill will be treated as approved and escalated to the next level if an officer does not act within the stipulated period. Any rejection will have to be backed by reasons recorded in the system.
Payments will be credited directly to contractors' registered bank accounts through IFMS, using OTP-based authentication. This replaces the existing practice of manual RTGS transactions.
Contract management is also being folded into the IFMS, allowing a work to be tracked from award and execution through bill processing to final payment. Bill processing will be tied to the physical progress recorded by engineers in the Real-time Information Monitoring System.
In a move aimed at public accountability, the GBA will launch a dashboard where citizens can follow the status and progress of ongoing and completed works. The name of the engineer in charge and that of the contractor will be displayed at each worksite.
An Internal Audit Wing will also be set up to carry out periodic audits, working alongside the annual audit conducted by the Chief Auditor.
The GBA said the changes are intended to cut procedural delays, fix responsibility, tighten financial oversight and improve quality control in public works.