*Huge in-house work outsourced to obtain undue benefits
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 19: Cont-rary to the tall claims of Government about tightening noose around the corrupt officers in Jammu and Kashmir, bunglings worth crores of rupees in the Ranbir Government Press have remained unnoticed during the past some years despite glaring instances of loot of the State exchequer by an officer at the helm of affairs in the department.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that in the year 2012-13, pilferage of 6500 kilograms of type metal worth Rs 32 lakh was detected in the Government Press Srinagar and accordingly FIR No.121/2013 was registered in the Kothi Bagh Police Station, Srinagar.
Even on the instructions of the Administrative Department, the Deputy Director Audit and Inspection Kashmir ordered Special Audit of the accounts/ pilferage of 6500 kilograms of type metal in the Government Press Srinagar. On the basis of the audit conducted by a team of officers, the Director Audit and Inspections furnished the report to the Secretary to Government, ARI Training Department vide communication No.DAI/Audit/ 104-07 dated May 20, 2014 for necessary action.
During the special audit it was detected that though Financial Code provides that physical verification of stock and stores should be conducted at least once in a year but this practice was not being followed in the Ranbir Government Press.
“Proper accounting procedure has not been adopted by the Head of the Department to ensure the safety of stores against loss, theft and misappropriation especially in respect of type metal and related items having a good market value”, the audit report said.
“Due to inadequate measures taken with regard to safety and security of the stocks (metal), it transpired that valuables under stock have been deliberately left vulnerable to any untoward incident. The improper procedure adopted by the Head of the Government Press Srinagar in maintaining the stock accou-nts and ensuring the safe custody of Government property reflects the negligence on his part in discharging of services and in safeguarding the public property”, the report further said, adding “the malafide interests of the Government employees having hand in misappropriation of the metal cannot be ruled out”.
In the report, the Director Audit and Inspection recommended that the matter should be investigated by the authorities at the helm of affairs for nabbing the responsible Government servants, who were involved in the act of misappropriation, theft and fraud of Government property either by assisting in the cause or by adopting negligent approach towards discharge of responsibility entrusted by the Government.
However, neither any action on the findings of Special Audit has been taken nor the FIR lodged in 2013 has reached the logical conclusion till date, sources rued, adding “since General Manager Government Press is a well-connected person, no one is daring to take action against him despite the fact that Special Audit had recommended necessary action as warranted under rules as well as recovery of metal cost from the delinquent Government servant”.
Sources further said that the officer had purchased card sheet at Government Press Srinagar in 2012-13 costing Rs 63 lakh showing in the paper of superior quality but actually sub-standard material was received in the Press. Since the rate difference was 50%, the State exchequer suffered huge loss, sources said.
They informed that the officer procured the paper of Rs 1.07 crore value without e-tendering on May 3, 2014 without waiting for tendering process which was finalized on August 29, 2014 whereas Rs 1.62 crore worth paper stock was lying in the store at that time. Moreover, in 2014 the plastic coated paper of wood based for west coast paper was approved by the Central Purchase Committee but the supply order issued and paper received was of plastic coated local made only which has quality and cost difference of about Rs 4 lakh.
More shockingly, during his tenure more than Rs 17 lakh worth job was outsourced despite the fact that the same job can easily be done in the Government Press itself. In this way, the officer conferred undue favour on the private party and obtained undue gain for himself.
“The officer also purchased substandard and short supply of mill board worth Rs 23 lakh by violating all the standing norms of the Government from time to time”, sources said, adding recently the officer purchased five color machine from a favourite company despite the fact that this particular machine has no utility in the Government Press and actually only four color machine is being used during the past several years. Even codal formalities were violated in order to confer undue benefit upon the company and obtain undue gains.
Since one of the priorities of the Governor’s administration is to tighten noose around the corrupt officers and officials, it is the high time for conducting in-depth probe into all the illegal acts of the General Manager Ranbir Government Press by entrusting the enquiry to an officer of honesty and integrity so that no pressure is put to derail the investigation, sources stressed.
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