Faridabad MC disbursed ₹184 crore to same contractor from 2015 to 2020: Govt in assembly
Gupta was replying to a question of Congress MLA Neeraj Sharma (Faridabad NIT), who wanted to know the names of the officers who made the payment in this “ ₹200 crore scam without any work” of the Faridabad MC being carried out on the ground.
Haryana urban local bodies minister Kamal Gupta on Tuesday informed the assembly that in its March 31, 2021, audit report, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had detected nearly ₹24 crore loss to the Municipal Corporation (MC) Faridabad (MCF) as no works were executed against these payments.
Gupta was replying to a question of Congress MLA Neeraj Sharma (Faridabad NIT), who wanted to know the names of the officers who made the payment in this “ ₹200 crore scam without any work” of the Faridabad MC being carried out on the ground.
Responding to the pleas of Congress MLA, who stated that the government was not responding to the letter of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which had sought prosecution sanction against more officials involved in this scam, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar indicated that he would look into this issue the MLA was raising.
In a written reply, the local bodies minister said that ₹184 crore were disbursed to the same contractor from April 2015 to June 2020 by the MC Faridabad officials.
“Out of this, payment vouchers of ₹104 crore were made available to audit, whereas payment vouchers of ₹80 crore were not made available to audit by accounts branch of the MC, Faridabad. Thereby, indicating weak internal and financial control mechanism of the MC, Faridabad,” Gupta said.
The minister stated that the chief secretary, Haryana, (vide memo dated 7.2.2023) has granted permission to the ACB to investigate against the officers/officials under Section 17 A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, (in FIR No. 13 dated 19.4.2022).
The officers against whom prosecution sanction have been granted are Sonal Goel, IAS (then commissioner, MC, Faridabad); Naveen Yadav (then resident Sr auditor); Satish Kumar (accounts branch); Vishal Kaushik (accounts branch); and Shashi Arya (superintendent, accounts branch).
The ACB is holding an investigation into this scam in which the ACB had registered five FIRs against 41 officials of the MC Faridabad, including the IAS officers.
The minister said 27 officers and officials then posted in MC Faridabad and who recommended/made payments for the works as pointed out in CAG report and inquiry report of ACB are Tasleem (clerk), Naveen Ratra (clerk), Deepak Kumar (junior engineer), Rajan Tewatia (junior engineer), Sher Singh (assistant engineer), Seema Bhatia, Vinod Gulati, Ved Gaur, Sashi Arya, Deepa Pabbi (all superintendents), Vishal Kaushik (accounts officer), Rajeev Sharma (OIA), Satish Sharma (OIA), Krishan Yadav (financial controller), Anand Swaroop Verma (financial controller), Sunita Verma (corporation secretary), Amardeep Singh (joint commissioner), Narhari Banger (joint commissioner), Ashima Sangwan (joint commissioner), Raman Sharma (executive engineer), Prem Raj (executive engineer), DR Bhaskar (chief engineer), Mohammad Shayin, IAS, Atul Diwiedi, IAS, Sonal Goel, IAS, Anita Yadav, IAS, and Yash Garg, IAS.
