New Delhi: LG VK Saxena on Thursday ordered an FIR against 11 former DDA officials in a nine-year-old case. “Considering the grave misconduct and loss to the exchequer, the LG has ordered registration of FIR and permanent withdrawal of full pension benefits of these retired officials, against the department’s recommendation of withholding only 25% of their pension,” said a source.According to sources, the DDA had approved the work to upgrade and beautify the Coronation Park at Kingsway Camp in 2013 at the tender cost of Rs 14.24 crore. “But the project cost escalated to Rs 28.36 crore. Also, works amounting to Rs 114.83 crore were carried out at Narela and Dhirpur without any approval under the same tender,” said a source, adding that an overall payment of Rs 142.08 crore was made to the contractor. Officials said the additional work should have been done by calling fresh tenders that would have not only saved crores in terms of competitive biddings but also ensured better quality. “It’s a case of collusion between the contractor and officials. All laid down norms were violated to benefit the contractor in lieu of probable commissions,” the source claimed. Officials said the Comptroller and Auditor General, in its 2016 report, had pointed out an overall deviation of 897.67% (almost 9 times) from the original work.Sources claimed the execution of the additional work of Rs 114.83 crore was approved by the then chief engineer (North Zone) on the day of his retirement in October 2014 and the then member (engineering) had granted his in-principle approval. “The officials from the accounts and finance department released payments by diverting funds from other heads thus violating the laid procedures,” said an official.“The LG expressed serious displeasure and took a strict note of the manner in which the supervisory officers – member (engineering) and member (finance) — failed in their responsibilities to effectively supervise their subordinate officers,” a source said.“From the foregoing, I am of the considered view that the entire sequence of events amounts to criminal breach of trust and the angle of corruption cannot be ruled out…” the LG said in his order.“…In addition, a foolproof system should be put in place for effective supervision and internal audit mechanism to ensure that such incidents do not reoccur. A report to be submitted for my perusal within 15 days,” the order further read. Sources said when the case file first came to the LG about a month ago, it proposed action against just the engineers concerned. “LG asked for procedures and levels of clearances required to be put on record and names of the officers who all were involved in the execution of this entire project,” said an official. FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebookTwitterInstagramKOO APPYOUTUBE
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/full-pension-benefits-of-all-11-retd-officials-scrapped/articleshow/93508834.cms
