SHILLONG: A contract of Rs 140 crore, which was irregularly and wrongfully being awarded to a public sector unit, WAPCOS, by the NEEPCO management, was prevented thanks to the intervention of former NEEPCO CEO Satish Verma.
The project was to reduce acidity of the concrete dams in Kopili Hydro Electric Project (HEP).
Verma had sent detailed vigilance observations to the NEEPCO management advising against awarding deposit work amount of Rs 140crore to control acidity in dams.
As per the vigilance observations, 10 percent of the deposit work amount, which is Rs 14 crore, was ordered to be transferred to WAPCOS and apprehensions were raised that the large amount exiting NEEPCO would be misappropriated by interested individuals without any real benefit to the company, and thus needed to be prevented.
The amount to be disbursed to WAPCOS was for countering the effects of acidity in Umrong and Khandong dams. Later, the payment was withheld thereby preventing any illegal flow of money from NEEPCO.
According to the observations recorded by Verma and apprised to the Ministry of Power, the work was being pushed to favour an individual named Samir Vasudeva, an applicant for BASF (a company manufacturing construction chemicals), even though the proposed work was not needed and despite the fact that the efficacy of the chemical in question was untested in acidic environments.
“Moreover, the source information added that this contract on a turnkey basis as deposit work was being given to WAPCOS, who has been consultants to NEEPCO on the subject, and thus it was also being done in violation of the CVC directions,” the report said.
A copy of the observations of Verma available with The Shillong Times said Verma had written to the Executive Director (Operations and Maintenance) for sending the records and files pertaining to the proposed work and also recommending that no further steps like outflows of money from NEEPCO to WAPCOS should be taken by the management before the files were scrutinised in the Vigilance Wing.
Verma had prepared and sent his observations to the concerned authorities and the deposit work amount of Rs 140 crore, proposed to be given to WAPCOS, and the outflow of Rs. 14 crore from NEEPCO to WAPCOS was stopped in the nick of time due to the advisories sent by way of preventive vigilance. Verma had made the necessary recommendations in view of the findings arrived at after due scrutiny that the entire proposal was “without need, fraught with conflict of interest, suffered from irregularities, and was in violation of the binding directions of the CVC”.
Most objectionably, it was disclosed to Verma that Samir Vasudeva, a person of dubious credentials, was acting off the record for this fraudulent exercise.
In the original application submitted by Verma to the Central Administrative Tribunal in Guwahati, Verma mentioned that a source’s information further suggested that Vasudeva enjoyed special closeness with PC Pankaj, the former NEEPCO CMD.
