CBI books 2 senior SEEPZ officers in corruption case
CBI files corruption case against former SEEPZ officials for allegedly awarding ₹74.85 crore repair works to an ineligible agency without bidding.
MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a corruption case against a former chairperson and a former joint development commissioner of the Andheri-based SEEPZ (Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone), and others, for allegedly facilitating the allotment of multi-crore structural repair works to an ineligible agency in 2016-17.
A complaint was filed on November 2022 by an assistant development commissioner of SEEPZ, alleging that the works were given to the agency without any competitive bidding and against the General Financial Rules pertinent to allotment of such works, agency sources said.
Based on the complaint, the CBI on Tuesday registered a case against the then chairperson of SEEPZ - an Indian Trade Service officer - who has since retired, and the then estate manager/joint development commissioner - an Indian Revenue Service officer - and unknown others. The two senior officials have been accused of conspiring and abusing their positions to obtain undue advantage for the ineligible agency.
The complaint alleged that the two accused persons, while working with SEEPZ in the relevant period, conspired to allot the “major work” of the works of structural repair and allied civil works and water-proof treatment to M/s. National Co-operative Construction & Development Federation of India Ltd (NFCD), although it was an ineligible agency. NFCD is an agency registered under Multi-State Cooperatives Society Act, 2002, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Union Ministry of Agriculture.
The complaint further alleged that the works were allotted without the approval of the SEEPZ-SEZ Authority. A subsequent audit revealed that the allotted works amounted to ₹74.85 crore and an advance payment of ₹56.14 crore was made on December 2017. The audit noticed that NFCD was not on the list of agencies notified by the Union Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD).
Further, it was found that the SEZ Authority had only approved an expenditure of ₹40.48 crore, including a five per cent contingency for structural repair and allied civil works, whereas NFCD was allegedly issued a work order in February 2017 for ₹44.58 crore, without the approval of the competent authority. Thereafter, an additional amount of ₹7.77 crore was allegedly sanctioned for structural repairs, again without the approval of the authority.
It was also alleged that a weak mechanism for ensuring quality control had been adopted by the SEEPZ for monitoring of the repair works, and despite being informed about it, no action was taken by NFCD till the date of audit. Since no Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had allegedly been signed between the Authority and NFCD and no bank Guarantee/performance guarantee had been taken, the authority could not enforce action against NFCD.
The CBI case was registered under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code relevant to the offences of public servants, in conspiracy with private persons, abusing their official position and obtaining undue advantage. The agency registered the case after obtaining the necessary permission from the competent authority to proceed against the accused in the case, as required under the Prevention of Corruption Act.