BMC yet to act on contractor who filed fake documents

MUMBAI: Ten months after the BMC found that a contractor had submitted fake documents to bag a tender to supply medicines to its hospitals, the corporation is yet to take any action against him. The BMC said that it had issued a show cause notice to the contractor last month—however, RTI activist Santosh Daundkar pointed out that the civic body had not filed an FIR despite ten months going by, and was not taking the offence seriously.

Daundkar wrote to BMC commissioner Iqbal Chahal on May 11 after he found out that the contractor had filed fake documents with the BMC in July 2022. The documents were dubbed ‘fake’ after the Himachal Pradesh (HP) drug controller wrote to the AMO of the Central Purchase Department (CPD) on July 12, 2022, responding to the BMC’s request to verify the documents. “Performance certificates dated 17.03.2022 and 03.06.2022 attached with your mail dated 04.07.2022 have not been issued by this office and are fake,” wrote the drug controller. “The report of the Drugs Inspector along with certificates are attached herewith for your kind information.”

Daundkar, in his letter to the BMC, said that the matter of a contractor filing fake documents to get a tender to supply medicines was “serious”. He also alleged that despite knowing the fact that the company had filed fake documents, the officials from CPD did not act and instead tried to deny his RTI request.

While the CPD official did not respond on why there was a nine-month delay in sending a show cause notice, he said that the department was following due process. “Though the Himachal Pradesh Drug Controller has confirmed that the documents submitted by M/S Scott Edil Pharmacia Ltd (are fake), we need to follow a process wherein we have to issue a show cause notice and allow the company to present its side,” said the official, who added that the contractor is yet to reply to the show cause notice.

BMC Commissioner and administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal, in response to HT’s WhatsApp message, said, “Noted for immediate action.”