40% commission row: Karnataka contractors admit to paying bribes, says report

Ahead of next year’s Assembly elections in Karnataka, the ruling BJP led by Basavaraj Bommai is again facing 40% commission allegations from the state’s contractors with some of them admitting that they have paid kickbacks, a report said on Wednesday (August 31).

According to an NDTV report, top members of the contractors’ association, who are contractors themselves, spoke about the kickbacks they have paid to government officials in order to bag government projects.

R Ambikapati, a Bengaluru-based contractor and President of the city municipality’s contractor association, said the last project he executed was a playground in Domlur in east Bengaluru worth ₹5 crore. He said he paid 40% of the project cost as a bribe. “I can’t name the people,” he told the news channel.

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Manjunath, Vice President of Karnataka’s State Contractor Association, said his last project was a set of government hospitals in the Chitradurga district. “The projects are worth ₹18 crore and ₹ 10 crore. We had to give commission,” he said.

They admitted that corruption was commonplace across parties and governments, they said the reason they have gone public is because it has got worse after the BJP came to power in the State. “Earlier the commission was only 5%. Now its 40%. Ministers, MLAs are also involved,” Manjunath told the channel.

Last week, the Karnataka Cabinet had condemned the 40% commission allegations, calling them ‘baseless’ and asked the contractors’ association to prove with evidence.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who termed the allegations as “nothing but politically motivated”, hit out at the Congress, which along with the association is demanding a judicial probe.

An association delegation, led by its president D Kempanna, had on last week met Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Siddaramaiah and later alleged that the whole system was corrupt.

He accused ministers and MLAs of demanding a percentage, and that they would be writing another letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.

The association had earlier written to the Prime Minister regarding the commission allegation in July last year.

“The Cabinet informally discussed it (commission charge), this is not an issue that brings pride to the state. If anyone has to make any charge or make any allegations they will have to provide evidence…we are saddened by such baseless allegations and as a government we condemn it,” Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhuswamy said.

(With agency inputs)