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Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has approved a proposal to forward a complaint to the CBI seeking to probe alleged corruption in the procurement of 1,000 low-floor buses by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), sources said.
A complaint regarding irregularities in the tendering and bidding process was received by the L-G in July and was forwarded to chief secretary Naresh Kumar for comments. Kumar submitted his report to the L-G in August and the complaint has now been forwarded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), officials said.
The complaint alleges that the appointment of the Minister of Transport Kailash Gahlot as the chairman of the committee for tendering and procurement of buses by the DTC was done in a “premeditated manner”. It also alleges that the appointment of DIMTS as bid management consultant for this tender was done with an aim to “facilitate wrongdoing”.
As per the allegations, the procurement bid for 1,000 low floor BS-IV and BS-VI buses in 2019, followed by another one in March 2020 for the purchase and annual maintenance contract for low floor BS-VI buses, was in contravention of rules. The report submitted by the chief secretary to the L-G on August 19 pointed out certain “irregularities”, including that DIMTS and DTC’s tender committee did not evaluate the financial bids correctly.
The CBI is already conducting a preliminary inquiry into the annual maintainable contracts of the procurement of these buses, and Saxena approved the clubbing of this complaint with the one already being probed.
A committee formed to look into the allegations, headed by retired IAS officer O P Aggrawal, had in its report submitted in August last year indicted the AAP government for “procedural deviations in the entire tendering and procurement procedure”, the sources said.
“Criminal misconduct by public servants in this tender exercise will be ascertained by the investigating agency, ie the CBI. On the basis of this, the chief secretary recommended to refer the matter to the CBI, which was approved by the L-G,” said a source.
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