Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Sunday said it has constituted a ‘Tender Scrutiny Committee’ headed by a retired High Court judge, aimed at bringing transparency and curb irregularities in the tendering process.

The committee headed by Justice Rathnakala has been mandated to scrutinise all tenders above Rs 50 crore according to the guidelines already issued to curb irregularities in the tendering process.

The move for transparency has come at a time when the BJP government in the state is facing allegations of corruption, including the ’40 per cent commission’ charge from contractors to get the payment released for the projects completed.

Recently, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had ordered a complete stop to awarding government projects based on the oral instructions from ministers and elected representatives, and had warned erring officers of strong action.

This follows the death of Santosh Patil, a contractor from Belagavi, who allegedly died by suicide, blaming former Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Minister K S Eshwarappa for holding up payment of Rs 4 crore,0 due to him.

Retired Secretary of Water Resources Department B G Gurupadaswamy (expert engineer) and Retired Director of State Accounts and Audit Department K Nandakumar (finance expert) have been appointed as the members of the committee, the CM’s office said in a statement.

The panel has been constituted in accordance with the government order issued last December.