The same three firms won 41 percent of ward contracts

Procurement law requires award notices. Nobody requires anyone to read them together, which is how the pattern stays quiet: one ward at a time, each award is defensible, and no single office sees the ledger.

We read the notices together. Two hundred eighteen awards above the Rs 2 million threshold across the past twelve months, matched to the company registry by registration number. Three firms account for 41 percent of the value, and the work they do is mostly the same kind of work: road repair, drain lining, routine maintenance — the contracts that pay quickly and get inspected rarely.

The addresses on the registrations sit within a kilometre of the offices that approve the awards in seven of nine wards. That is not proof of anything by itself; the roads companies are local by design, and the ward offices say the bids were open. What the addresses do not show — and what no notice records — is who the shareholders are. The registry lists them; the notices never need to.

The full table is published below the fold, ward by ward, with the registration numbers on it. If your ward is on it and the explanation is ordinary, say so and we will print that too.