Chairman announces House Committee

Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Apr 6: As the much publicized JAKFED scam worth over Rs 1000 crore rocked the Upper House of the Legislature today again with the members from even the ruling coalition alleging failure of the Government to make recovery worth crores from the employees and others involved in the scandal and take any action against some top officers including IAS and KAS, Chairman Legislative Council Amrit Malhotra announced a House Committee of legislators to conduct thorough inquiry and recommend action in this regard.
The Chairman of the Legislative Council announced his verdict after the Congress member Naresh Kumar Gupta, Ravinder Sharma, Jugal Kishore Sharma, Khalid Najeeb Suhrawardy (NC) and several others pressed for announcing House Committee over the issue. Some of the members even pressed for handing over the case to CBI. They said even after Pillai Committee submitted its report in 2001 and also recommended action in this regard, the Government failed to make recovery despite the fact that huge public money was involved in this scandal. Many top officers were not touched and Government tried to protect them.
While the Minister of State for Cooperatives, Dr Manohar Lal Sharma said that this scam pertained to the time when he was not even MLA but he opposed the framing of House Committee. He said the Pillai Committee has already held inquiry. On this the Government dismissed 30 employees and attached 15 others. About 20 FIRs were registered against the employees and others involved but majority of the cases could not be proved. Some employees went into the courts and got stay and rejoined their duties. The recovery was also effected from many employees and the GAD conducts review of the cases on regular intervals.
Congress Legislator Naresh Kumar Gupta while participating in the discussion pointed out that they went to the courts for their jobs but why the recoveries were not made? “Why only class-IV, drivers and clerks were terminated from service. Can such small employees indulge in the scandal worth hundreds of crores without the involvement of higher officers. What was the compulsion of the Government to shield such top officers. Even after being indicted by Pillai Committee why some senior officers were accorded favours and placed at top positions?” he asked.
The issue was forcefully supported by some NC and the Congress legislators, who sought that House Committee be formed to conduct in-depth inquiry and recommend action in this regard. They said the case was of serious nature and it involved huge public money.
Realizing seriousness of the issue and failure on the part of Government to make recovery from the people involved in it during the last many years, Chairman of the Upper House, Amrit Malhotra said since the issue pertains to the involvement of huge public money worth hundreds of crores it will be fair to constitute House Committee. Then he declared his decision.
Dr Sharma admitted that major scam took place much earlier before he took over as Minister. He claimed that the then Government appointed Additional Chief Secretary S L Sailova and Secretary to Government, Power vide order No. 11-GAD ( Vig) of 1998 as fact finding inquiry officers regarding embezzlement/ misappropriations committed in JAKFED. Subsequently, in supersession of earlier inquiry, K B Pillai the then Principal Secretary to Govt PDD was appointed as inquiry officer in place of Mr Sailova vide Govt order No. 26-GAD (Vig) of 1999 dated 11-3-1999. That committee submitted the report to the Government on August 31, 2000, pointing out shortages/misappropriations/ embezzlement / retention of Government money against various Government officers/ employees to the tune of Rs 299 crore. The member pointed out that this embezzlement took place from 1986 onwards up to 1998-99 after adjustment of many pending bills etc, the scam was worked out to be just Rs 300 crore. But it is unfortunate that recovery made was very less. Why recovery could not be made from the employees and others involved. He asked what was the problem in revealing the names of those officers in the House.
The Ministers claimed that some action was also taken by the then Government and 35 employees were also terminated. Many of them went to the Court and sought directions. On the recommendation of the Pillai Committee Special Audit Committee was constituted and it submitted its report in 2002. It pointed out outstanding of Rs 1145.87 lakh against 79 employees of JAKFED. Out of this imprest account worth Rs 893.42 lakh were pending adjustments and no accounts had been submitted for remaining outstanding of Rs 252.45 lakh. The accounts at present show that Rs 386.64 lakh has been adjusted against an outstanding of Rs 893.42 lakh and Rs 8.74 lakh has been adjusted against an outstanding of Rs 252.45 lakh. Recovery worth Rs 254 lakh was also pending in respect of 18 cases of rice mills and from nine more employees worth Rs 39 lakh.
The special audit established an outstanding of Rs 349.76 lakh on account of shortages against various employees. Adjustments/ recoveries have been made to the tune of Rs 196 lakh only. A total 21 FIRs were registered against the JAKFED employees and required sanction to their prosecution was also accorded in most of the cases as required by Vigilance Organisation. The case FIR No. 10/1998 pertaining to misappropriation of fertilizers in Kashmir is still under investigation by Vigilance Organisation, Kashmir. In case FIR No. 3/ 95 VOJ the matter was discussed in the BoD meeting held on 2-4-98, where in besides granting sanction for prosecution against 10 officers of JAKFED Kashmir namely Showkat Hussain the then Senior Accountant, Nazir Ahmed Shah, the then Accountant, Sayed Muzaffar Hussain the then Junior Assistant, Bashir Ahmed Bhat the then Manager Pulwama, Muzaffar Bandey, Abdul Rashid, dispatch clerks, Sayed Mukhtar junior assistant, R K Wali (JA), Mushtaq Ahmed Mir (SA) and Bashir Ahmed Thokar (the then SA). The BoD then resolved that inquiry should also be conducted against officers- Sham Lal Sharma, Manager, Girdhari Lal Abrol ( Assistant General Manager), Shivdev Singh Chief Accountant and Mohinder Singh Chief Accountant.
The Minister admitted that no inquiry was conducted in this regard, and hence after the matter came to the notice to the current management, an inquiry has been initiated against these officers vide order No. 612/Adm/FIR 3/95/ Enq/12/252-57 dated 28-1-2012 for ascertaining their involvement in the case. It is still under process. Fifteen officers were also attached in this connection in pursuant to the Cabinet decision No. 40/2 of 21-2-2001. They included B K Bakshi, the then manager, M R Choudhary AGM, G L Abrol-AGM, S L Sharma, S B Gandotra, S K Sharma-managers, J D Dhar -Chief Accountant, Ghulam Mohiuddin Wani Ex-DGM, Raman Uppal Field Officer, Janak Singh Field Officer, Mukesh Darmal Manager, Karan Singh Senior Assistant , Om Parkash Store Keeper, Om Parkash Manager and R S Gupta Ex-Manager.
The Pillai Committee has clearly indicted Managing Director/ Chief Executives and General Managers in the JAKFED from time to time and held them responsible for the embezzlement/ irregularities. The report has made mention of the then top IAS /KAS officers including B R Kundal, Arun Kumar, Mohd Amin, D P Khajuria, Mehboob Iqbal, Jeet Lal Gupta and N K Verma who were posted between 1986 and 1999 in the JAKFED. It pointed out complete accounting mess in the JAKFED as no financial statements were prepared from the year 1988 onwards. It also pointed out that 259 appointments were made by the JAKFED in six districts of Jammu division between 1985 and 1995 in violation of codal requirements. It also detected imprest outstanding on the names of imprest holder of JAKFED staff around Rs 9.93 crore. In Doda alone embezzlement of Rs 5.60 crore was detected. It was found that trucks of fertilizers were shown dispatched but not reached to the destination and found missing. It said various back dated adjustments and suspected head load payments and fake movement of trucks during the period.

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