When senior IAS officer dumped Minister’s note, asked JAKEDA to proceed with dubious procurement

·        CAG report exposes how officers failed Centre-sponsored solar power scheme in J&K

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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Jammu, March 27: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s report for the year 2014, on the functioning of the State government departments, which was tabled in both Houses of the State Legislature on Friday, has revealed how senior IAS officers treated Ministers of Omar Abdullah’s government with contempt and rendered the Centrally-sponsored solar power schemes defunct in Jammu and Kashmir.

The report has elaborated on how the supply orders worth crores of Rupees were split and allotted to handpicked firms in violation of codal procedures and Central Vigilance Commission [CVC] guidelines.

As per the JAKEDA rules, cheques to the order of Rs 10,000 to Rs one crore are jointly signed by Accounts Officer and Chief Executive Officer and those to the tune of over Rs one crore jointly by CEO and Commissioner/Secretary Science and Technology. Besides, different Financial Codes make it incumbent upon the government department to pre-disclose the distribution of the items to be procured in a similar quotation for different locations.

“It was, however, seen that the supply orders worth Rs 11.24 crore were split into 14 supply orders below Rs one crore each and placed (October 2009) to avoid signature of the competent authority. The Commissioner/Secretary stated (July 2014) that the programme was to be implemented in various districts of the State consisting of different blocks and as such, the supply order was split block-wise and cheques were prepared as per indent placed on DGS&D and the location wise distribution should have formed part of instructions appended with the supply order”, says a paragraph on the solar power scandal.

“The matter had come to the knowledge of the then Hon’ble Minister Science and Information Technology Department [Aga Syed Ruhullah] who while taking serious note of the matter  had ordered (November 2009) cancellation of the supply orders. However, no action was taken and the Agency [JAKEDA] went ahead with the procurement. The Commissioner/Secretary stated (July 2014) that the then Hon’ble Minister had not communicated any letter on the matter. The reply was not based on facts as the note dated 9^th November 2009 on the matter was marked to the then Principal Secretary of the Department”, adds the CAG report.

It has given details how thousands of Solar Home Lighting Systems [SHLS] were procured just 7 days before expiry of the rate contract at Rs 12,978 each even as the rates came down to Rs 12,500 just next week in October 2009. It has also detailed how supply orders were given to particular firms without ascertaining their turnover which should have been a minimum of Rs 50 crore.

While only Rs 750 was to be recovered from the beneficiaries for each SHLS and Rs 500 for a solar lantern, the CAG report has established that in many areas Rs 1,600 to Rs 3,000 was charged from each beneficiary. It has discovered how solar power units installed at different institutions, including hospitals, failed completely as the supplies were made in violation of the prescribed standards and the suppliers were not made to enforce different clauses of the Annual Maintenance Contract [AMC] drawn for 5 years.

“Various lacunae in the procurement process led to financial loss of Rs 117.81 lakh to the public exchequer, undue benefit to the suppliers and allotment of projects to ineligible contractors”, said the report.

The CAG report says that JAKEDA officials parked funds in deposit accounts in violation of the Financial code, resulting in loss of central assistance worth Rs 26.75 crore. As many as 14,692 approved SHLS units were not distributed among the beneficiaries. Simultaneously, 12,366 SHLS units, valued at Rs 14.45 crore, were distributed among unauthorised beneficiaries in unapproved or electrified villages.

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