Show cause notices have been slapped on the six tainted officials
Nagpur: In a significant development, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) has reportedly lodged a complaint with Sadar police against six top officials and five firms in connection with the bogus contracts scam. Show cause notices have also been slapped on the six officials, a media report said.
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Wed 18 Dec. 2024
The report said the six officials who faced action include Chief Accounts and Finance Officer Vijay Kolhe, Accounts Officer Rajesh Meshram, Assistant Commissioner (GAD) Mahesh Dhamecha, Senior Clerk at GAD Mohan Padwanshi, Auditor SY Nagdive and Auditor Afaque Ahmed. The five firms are Sudarshan Paper Converting, Manohar Sakode and Brothers, Swastik Trade Link, Gurukripa Stationers and Printers, and S K Enterprises.
Notice has been issued to Dhamecha as he gave his username and password to his subordinate. Sadar Police Inspector Vinod Chaudhari said inquiry was going on and an offense will be registered after completion of the inquiry.
According to the media report, a preliminary inquiry has revealed involvement of the six officials of two departments in the bogus contracts scam. The civic body has recovered Rs 67 lakh paid to the private firms, lodged a complaint with Sadar Police Station, and also issued show cause notices to six officials.
A contractor running five different firms in the names of himself and his family members had prepared 42 bogus contracts with fake signatures of Chief Medical Officer Dr Sanjay Chilkar and other staffers of NMC’s Health Department. He never supplied the materials but drew payment of Rs 67 lakh from the Accounts and Finance Department.
The report further said that the Additional Municipal Commissioner Ram Joshi conducted a preliminary inquiry and found these bogus contracts were prepared between December 20, 2020, and March 31, 2021. After submission of a file with the Accounts and Finance Department, the concerned department is supposed to generate a bill online on a payment module developed by NMC under an e-governance project. Then, the Head of Department will have to clear it online. The bill goes to Accounts and Finance Departments online. The staffers of the Accounts and Finance Department have to cross check the online bill with a file. All bogus contracts were from the Health Department but bills were generated and approved by the General Administration Department (GAD). A staffer of GAD was in connivance with the contractor. This staffer also had the username and password of the head of GAD, and used it to process approvals, Joshi said.
According to the report, the staffers of Accounts and Finance Department approved bills and released payments even though the bills were generated by GAD and the file was of the Health Department. Even files were created without a number, which the NMC used to track it online. It is known as a letter and file management system (LFMS) number. Still, the Accounts and Finance Department approved bills and disbursed payments, the media report added.
Following the exposure of the scam, Chief Medical Officer Dr Sanjay Chilkar lodged a complaint with Sadar Police Station against five firms — Sudarshan Paper Converting, Manohar Sakode and Brothers, Swastik Trade Link, Gurukripa Stationers and Printers, and S K Enterprises. Show cause notices have been issued to Chief Accounts and Finance Officer Vijay Kolhe, Accounts Officer Rajesh Meshram, Assistant Commissioner (GAD) Mahesh Dhamecha, Senior Clerk at GAD Mohan Padwanshi, Auditor SY Nagdive and Auditor Afaque Ahmed. Notice has been issued to Dhamecha as he gave his username and password to his subordinate.
