Jowai PHE racket
The Anti-Corruption Branch of the Police has expressed its inability to take up the investigation into the PHE affairs in Jowai in the absence of any FIR, with the police.
Sources said that the State Chief Secretary, Mrs P. P. Trivedi, had sent an official intimation to the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) seeking its assistance in the detailed probe into the scandal.
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The IGP, Mr B.S. Baber, who is also the Vigilance Commissioner, has communicated to the Chief Secretary that the Anti-Corruption Branch would handle the case only after an FIR was filed at the place of occurrence. The Govt has not lodged FIR with the police so far, sources said.
The Vigilance Commissioner has also asked the Govt to specifically indicate the nature of investigation, since the Chief Secretary’s orders were cryptic and vague.
According to one report, a section of officials of the Anti-Corruption Branch is reluctant to associate itself with the case in view of magnitude of the amount involved. It is said that the ACB has never handled such a big case and there is hardly any experienced men to negotiate the case in a fool-proof manner.
Meanwhile, the Govt has sought the assistance of the Law Department in interpreting the propriety or otherwise of the suspended Executive Engineer in placing such huge supply orders. The Law Department has upheld that the Executive Engineer was the “competent officer” to place orders on behalf of the Govt.
A lacuna has been detected in the Meghalaya Delegation of Financial Power Rules, 1981 which says that an Executive Engineer of the Public Works Department is empowered to place orders or make payment upto on amount of Rs. 20,000. But in the case of a PHE Executive Engineer the Rules are silent. Sources said that the Rules were adopted from the Assam Govt and for some inexplicable reason PHE Executive Engineers were not brought under the purview of the Rules, making a departure from the rules of the parent Govt.