Bank guarantee scam: CITCO officials kept sitting on file for 18 months
As per the case, the firm, OSCAR Security and Fire Service is accused of encashing ₹35 lakh bank guarantee submitted with CITCO on a fake document
Though the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation (CITCO) has suspended three officials in March this year in the case pertaining to a loss of more than ₹1 crore, it has come to light that some senior officials of the corporation were directed to forfeit the bank guarantee of ₹35 lakh of the firm, but they kept sitting on the file for 18 months.
As per the case, the firm, OSCAR Security and Fire Service is accused of encashing ₹35 lakh bank guarantee submitted with CITCO on a fake document. The firm also caused a loss of ₹67 lakh to the corporation.
As per the documents in possession of Hindustan Times, it has come to light that in January 2022 after it was brought to the knowledge of the then additional managing director of CITCO Nitika Pawar that the firm has taken double benefit of ₹67 lakh as employees provident fund (EPF), she had directed the officials to forfeit the bank of guarantee of ₹35 lakh of the firm, but the officials concerned failed to act. Even in November 2022, the then MD Jaswinder Kaur also directed the officials to forfeit the bank guarantee of the firm, but they kept sitting on the file for nearly 18 months, which caused a loss of ₹1 crore to CITCO.
The scam came to light in January 2023, when officers of CITCO went to encash the bank guarantee of ₹35 lakh, but found that the guarantee had already been encashed by the firm in June 2022 and CITCO was only having the coloured photocopy of the bank guarantee.
Even after repeated attempts, MD Purva Garg could not be contacted for comments.
What is the case?
In 2018, CITCO awarded the contract to M/s OSCAR Security and Fire Service for providing manpower, for a period of three years, and again it was extended from January 2021 to April 2022. The firm caused a loss of ₹67 lakh to the corporation by receiving provident fund (PF) amount for more than 200 employees, which were provided to the corporation on a contract basis between 2018 and 2019. Besides collecting the PF amount of ₹67 lakh from CITCO, the company also received ₹67 lakh PF amount for the same employees from the Central government under Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana. The Central government scheme is meant to encourage the people to provide employment to the youth. Under this scheme, the Central government pays for the PF of people, who were provided jobs through a manpower-providing company.
CITCO had conducted an internal probe in the bank guarantee case and suspended three officials namely manager Anil Sharma, clerk Balwinder Kaur, and junior assistant Rikkhi Ram for allegedly conniving with the company officials. Even, FIR has been registered against two employees Anil Sharma and Rikkhi Ram.
However, they are yet to take action against the official for claiming double the amount by the firm.
