Appendices · The People's Model — Manifesto v2026

Manifesto_Vol3_AppB_ProjectLifecycleSOP_v1.0_c0626.docx

Plan → Budget → Tender → Execute → Inspect → Pay → Maintain. Every step, every gate, every evidence requirement.

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The People’s Model

Manifesto v2026

Volume III — Implementation Handbook

Appendix B

Public Project Lifecycle SOP

Plan → Budget → Tender → Execute → Inspect → Pay → Maintain. Every step, every gate, every evidence requirement.

B.1 Purpose

This Appendix is the Standard Operating Procedure for every Karnataka public project that creates an asset or delivers a contracted service. It applies to road, building, water, sanitation, school, hospital, and IT-system projects without exception. The Project Delivery Cadre (Vol III App F) executes the SOP; the workflow engine (Vol I Ch 3) operates it; the Open Ledger (Vol I Ch 4) publishes the evidence at every step.

The SOP exists to make one thing impossible: a project where nobody can answer who owns what, on what evidence, with what authority. Every step below has a single accountable owner, a named gate, and a published evidence requirement.

B.2 The seven-step workflow

Every public project passes through these seven steps in order. The runtime engine refuses to advance to the next step until the current step’s gate has been passed.

B.3 Step-by-step

B.3.1 Step 1 — Plan

Owner: Project Sponsor (Vol III App F).
Inputs: identified need from a department, an outcome budget cycle, or a citizen-grievance pattern (Vol I Ch 3 L4).
Activities: stakeholder mapping; option analysis (in-house Works Corps vs Manufacturing Network vs contracting); business-case drafting; KPI and outcome definition; risk register opened.
Gate: Sponsor sign-off on the business case. Business case published in the Outcome Budget supplement and on the Open Ledger Plan record.
Output: signed business case + KPI definition + draft milestone plan.

B.3.2 Step 2 — Budget

Owner: Project Sponsor with Finance Department.
Activities: funding source identified; outcome tag applied (Vol I Ch 4); phase allocation in the budget book; project enters the Programme Ledger; Open Ledger entry opened with planning-data publication (≤ at budget tabling, per Vol III App D Sec. D.3).
Gate: Budget sanction order issued with the outcome tag and milestone trajectory.
Output: budgeted, outcome-tagged project on the Open Ledger.

B.3.3 Step 3 — Tender

Owner: Commercial Manager (Vol III App F).
Activities: bid documents prepared using standardised templates; KPPP tender published within publication window (≤ 24 hours from issue, Vol III App D Sec. D.3); bid evaluation against published criteria; bidder-floor rule applied — if fewer than three qualified bidders, Procurement Audit Cell review (Vol I Sec. 1.7 safeguard 6).
Gate: award decision recorded with reasons. OCDS award data published within ≤ 7 days.
Output: signed contract; vendor registered; milestone plan locked.

B.3.4 Step 4 — Execute

Owner: Project Manager (Vol III App F).
Activities: mobilisation per the contract; milestone-by-milestone delivery; geo-tagged photographic evidence captured for every milestone; daily/weekly progress posted to the runtime engine; risks reviewed monthly; any change-order request recorded with reason.
Gate: each milestone passes inspection (Step 5) before the next begins.
Output: completed milestones with evidence.

B.3.5 Step 5 — Inspect

Owner: Quality Lead + rotated Inspector (Vol III App F + Vol I Sec. 1.7 safeguard 5).
Activities: independent on-site inspection per milestone; lab tests for safety-sensitive elements (concrete strength, structural load, electrical safety, water quality, medical-equipment safety); certification recorded against the milestone; defect-rectification ordered where required.
Gate: PASS / DEFECT / REWORK / FAIL recorded on the milestone. WITHHELD is a stop-the-line event.
Output: certified milestone or rectification order.

B.3.6 Step 6 — Pay

Owner: Drawing & Disbursing Officer (DDO).
Activities: payment request received; runtime engine checks milestone has a PASS certificate; runtime engine checks exception code (Vol III App D Sec. D.4.3); payment release authorised; Open Ledger transaction posted within ≤ 30 days of release.
Gate: Stop-the-line. The engine refuses release without milestone evidence except in pre-disclosed advance categories. Each exception generates an audit event.
Output: paid milestone on the Open Ledger.

B.3.7 Step 7 — Maintain

Owner: Asset Registry custodian + Karnataka State Works Corps (Vol I Ch 5).
Activities: defect-liability period inspection; asset entered into the Asset Registry with maintenance schedule; routine work orders dispatched on schedule; failure events trigger rapid-repair (Vol II Ch 13 H.110).
Gate: defect-liability closure; asset enters steady-state maintenance.
Output: durable, maintained asset.

B.4 Decision rights (RACI summary)

R = Responsible, A = Accountable, C = Consulted, I = Informed. Separation-of-duties rules in Vol III App F Sec. F.2 apply throughout.

B.5 Standard exceptions

Pre-disclosed advance categories — mobilisation advance for civil-works contracts, advance against escrowed materials, special-circumstance bridge payments. Capped, published, recovered on a schedule.
Emergency procurement — disaster response under the Karnataka Emergency Response Fund (Vol I Sec. 3.4). Post-facto disclosure within 7 days; full audit within 30 days.
Price variation — only against published index movement, capped, with audit.
Extra item — only with Sponsor sign-off and Procurement Audit Cell review where the value exceeds threshold.

Every exception is logged on the Open Ledger as exception_code (Vol III App D Sec. D.4.3). Three exceptions of the same kind from the same officer within 12 months automatically trigger investigation (Vol I Sec. 4.7 safeguard 4).

B.6 Phase gates summary

B.X Hard-gated planning discipline — ’Locally Determined, Citizen Consulted, Open Ledger Published’

Every public-infrastructure programme where the engineering shape varies by location follows a five-step planning discipline as a hard gate before construction begins. This applies to the Structural Rebuild Programme (Vol II Ch 9 Sec. 9.6.6), the Karnataka Wastewater Plan (Vol II Ch 9 Sec. 9.6.10), the Public Transport Access Standard (Vol II Ch 9 Sec. 9.6.10), the Public Toilet Network siting (Vol II Ch 9 Sec. 9.6.9), the museum + information-centre network siting (Vol II Ch 7 Sec. 7.4.6), the DHEC siting (Vol II Ch 7 Sec. 7.4.7), and any future programme with similar variable engineering.

The five steps — sequential, hard-gated, audit-verified

(1) PLAN — site survey, geographic analysis, demand assessment, engineering option appraisal per zone. Output: draft plan with scope, cost, timeline, team composition, disruption window. (2) PUBLISH — draft plan published on the Open Ledger for the relevant ward, panchayat, or zone. (3) CONSULT — ward-level or panchayat-level consultation, with the schedule published at least fourteen days in advance. Plan revises based on public feedback. (4) REVISE — revised plan published before lock. (5) EXECUTE — construction begins only after publication of the locked plan plus a closing audit certifying steps 1-4 were completed.

Why this is a hard gate, not a soft step

Historical pattern in Indian state infrastructure: plans are made by departments, published only after award or completion, and consultations (where they happen at all) are formal rather than substantive. The result is over-budget, over-time, poorly-fitted infrastructure that the community did not want in the form delivered. Hard-gating the discipline means no contract can be awarded, no team can mobilise, until the audit certifies steps 1-4. The Project Delivery Cadre (App F) executive accountable for the project signs the audit. False certification is a documented breach with named consequences in the Cadre’s role definition.

Citizen feedback channel during consult phase

Citizens give feedback through JANATA — geo-tagged comments on the published draft. The Citizen Data Trust ombudsperson reviews patterns of feedback that suggest a draft plan does not fit the community it serves. The local body may not lock the plan over the ombudsperson’s documented objection without referring the matter to the Grievance Justice Authority.

B.7 Cross-references

Volume I Chapter 3 — 24/7 Governance Engine. The runtime that operates this SOP.
Volume I Chapter 4 — Public Finance with 100% Accountability. The financial discipline behind every step.
Volume I Chapter 5 — From Contractor Raj to State Capacity. The capacity behind the Cadre and the Works Corps.
Volume III Appendix C — Procurement & Works Red-Flag Catalog. Used by the Procurement Audit Cell during Step 3 and Step 6 reviews.
Volume III Appendix D — Open Ledger Data Dictionary. Defines what each step publishes.
Volume III Appendix F — Project Delivery Cadre Roles & Competencies. Defines who does each step.

Architecture cross-reference

Architecture impact on the project lifecycle SOP

Every project commissioned under this SOP — whether a public works project, a digital service rollout, or a programme — generates lifecycle events that flow through the Karnataka State Service Log (KSSL, App H sheet H.230). Project finance flows publish to the Open Ledger (App D — financial spine). Project outcome time-series publishes to the Karnataka Open Data Portal (App H sheet H.233). Personal-data flows in service-delivery projects are governed by the Citizen Consent Ledger (App H sheet H.232).

Statutory compliance touchpoints in the lifecycle

Procurement step requires a Software Bill of Materials (App I — Karnataka State Digital Infrastructure Act). Vendor diversity requirement applies to critical infrastructure components. Open-source mandate applies to all state-developed software. Pre-deployment security audit by CSOC (App H sheet H.231). Continuous post-deployment monitoring through KSSL anchoring + CSOC oversight. Civil-society Independent Audit Board (Vol I Ch 6) has standing to audit project compliance with these statutory touchpoints.

Step — Step name — What is decided / produced

1 — Plan — Need confirmed; business case approved; outcome and KPI defined; option-analysis published.

2 — Budget — Funding source identified; outcome-tagged; phase allocation in the budget book; Open Ledger entry opened.

3 — Tender — Bid documents finalised; KPPP tender published; bidder-floor rule applied; award decision recorded.

4 — Execute — Mobilisation; milestone-by-milestone delivery; geo-tagged evidence captured at every milestone.

5 — Inspect — Independent inspection per milestone; lab tests where applicable; certification recorded.

6 — Pay — Stop-the-line check against milestone evidence; payment release; Open Ledger transaction posted.

7 — Maintain — Defect-liability period; maintenance schedule from the Asset Registry; maintenance work orders to the Works Corps.

Step — Sponsor — Project Mgr — Commercial Mgr — Notes

Plan — A — R — C — Sponsor accountable; PM does the work; Commercial advises.

Budget — A — R — C — Sponsor + Finance co-decision.

Tender — C — A/R — Commercial accountable. Bidder-floor rule applied.

Execute — C — A/R — PM accountable for delivery.

Inspect — I — Quality Lead + Inspector are accountable. Independent of PM and Commercial.

Pay — I — C — DDO accountable; Stop-the-line enforced by engine.

Maintain — C — I — Works Corps + Asset Registry custodian.

Gate — Pass criterion

After Plan — Sponsor-signed business case published in Outcome Budget supplement.

After Budget — Sanction order issued; outcome tag applied; Open Ledger Plan record open.

After Tender — Contract signed; bidder-floor rule satisfied or audit recorded; OCDS award data published.

After Execute (per milestone) — Geo-tagged evidence captured; inspection certificate recorded.

After Inspect — PASS certificate or defined remedy issued.

After Pay — Open Ledger transaction posted within 30 days.

After Maintain (defect liability close) — Asset registered; steady-state maintenance schedule live.

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This is a chapter of The People's Model manifesto for Karnataka — published in full for public review. Every claim may be challenged: write to [email protected].