Small Scale Industries Development Corporation Limited (SICOP) supplies furniture and furnishing to the State Departments that place order with it. The stipulation is that the furniture and furnishing purchased from SICOP does not need to go through the process of audit. However, nobody cared to know the rates at which SICOP provided furniture and furnishing to the Government organizations until the case was taken up by the State High Court in a rather unconventional manner.
The High Court premises in Srinagar suffered extensive damages in the September floods and had to be shifted temporarily. Now, it wants to reconstruct its building and for that had to make some purchases of furniture and furnishing items. It approached the SICOP and after comparing the prices of various items quoted by the organization, found that the same could be purchased from supplying agencies of SICOP almost at half the price. Therefore, the High Court authorities went for purchase from suppliers of SICOP and saved fifty per cent of their money.
Though SICOP authorities deny that they charge exorbitantly from various Government departments and contend that they add only five per cent as service charges, yet the fact remains that the High Court purchasing agency found great variance in the prices quoted by SICOP. This leaves little doubt that the SICOP has not been playing fair. Why should it charge exorbitant rates from Government departments? Where does that money go and how is it accounted for. These are serious questions. It is a Government organization and cannot be allowed to work in suspicious manner.
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