Swachh Sarvekshan survey team under QCI lens

The second edition of the Swachh Sarvekshan to rank 500 cities on sanitation and cleanliness has been marred by bribery allegations with one of the surveying team allegedly seeking bribe to give better ranking.
One of the surveying teams allegedly sought bribe from municipal authorities of Aurangabad for assigning better ranking, prompting QCI to take tough action of suspending the agency conducting the survey, said sources.
The Ministry of Urban Development has commissioned Quality Council of India for an extensive survey on the progress of 'Swachh Bharat Mission' and rank 500 cities on sanitation and cleanliness.
When contacted, QCI confirmed the incident saying "one assessment team (out of several hundred) engaged for city assessment of Aurangabad was compromised; it allegedly took bribe from municipal authorities and was apprehended."

"The said team came from the inspection body Moody International (INTERTEK) who have been doing work of assessment across 44 countries and in existence since the last 130 years. This is first instance where a serious allegation seeks to compromise the deep layers fairness and transparency of assessment developed by QCI," the council said in a statement to PTI.
QCI engaged four inspection bodies accredited on International benchmarks ISO 17020 for checking compliance of sanitation.

"This is an individual act of violation, caught early and acted upon immediately. We are determined to use Aurangabad only to strengthen the system," QCI Chairman Adil Zainulbhai said.

QCI, he said, has undertaken many specific decisions to revalidate its system and to deliver six-sigma level of quality.
"The Aurangabad assessment has been made null and void. New dates of assessment will be given to Aurangabad with a new team," he said. "Moody International (INTERTEK) has been disengaged for any further assessment."
Also, an internal committee has been set up to look into all reports where the same team has visited so far. The team in question had conducted survey in five other cities.
"The entire data of Aurangabad has been kept separately for inquiry and the new assessment data will be made, so that the Aurangabad results are compiled later," QCI said.

QCI, which had last year ranked 73 cities on cleanliness parameters, has in the second edition completed assessment of 221 cities. The Swachh Survekshan 2017 for ranking 500 cities started on January 4 and is to be completed by February 10.
"The isolated case of Aurangabad is very disturbing and QCI takes it with utmost seriousness," Zainulbhai added.