SHILLONG, July 6: In his first reaction to the reported detection of scam in Saubhagya scheme, Power Minister James Sangma on Tuesday did not specifically deny any of the charges but sensed that The Shillong Times report in this regard was based on a confidential audit report leaked by some insiders.
He said every effort would be made by the government to identify the source and take disciplinary action against the concerned officers.
He declined to comment on certain specific charges levelled in the news report saying that it would be improper to say anything before the probe begins. Instead he harped on the leaked confidential document to the media triggering renewed demands for the removal of the power minister. “The basis and the crux of which all these demands are being made is something illegal but we are confident that we will be able to find out who these officers are and take very strict action against them so that this acts as a deterrent for the future,” he asserted.
Enquired under which provisions the action will be taken, Sangma said that there are various provisions of law and breach of discipline is one of them and such serious offences will also have serious punishment.
Asserting that the government stands for transparency and accountability on the matter of Saubhagya or for any other centrally or state sponsored scheme, Sangma said, “Many people have expressed concern about the financial situation of MeECL to which we also subscribe and always maintained that there are legacy issues and problems but we are not shrugging off of our responsibility by saying that it is only the legacy of the previous government”.
Pointing out that the government has instituted an inquiry commission which is independent in nature and this has been notified and the terms of reference is very clear that all the centrally or state sponsored schemes which have been implemented by the MeECL, he said, “These will be looked into in terms of the process of tendering, awarding, the implementation whether there has been any shortcomings or lacunae in terms of the work that was carried out who was responsible for these what is the reason for poor financial health of the cooperation the HR policy”.
“We will be examining that all these, be it Saubhagya or any other scheme, the inquiry commission will be looking into all these matters and submitting its report and I am sure once we have the findings a lot of light will be shed on what has gone wrong with the MeECL there will also be many suggestions,” he said.
Reiterating that the report is confidential and should have been ideally and usually placed during the budget session of every financial year, he said, “This report has not found its way to the Assembly as of now this is a process wherein the CAG office is carrying out due diligence to find out and ascertain facts there will always be something discovered in the course of going through documents but then for that clarification is always sort that is the normal course and if those clarification are not satisfactory it will find its way in the CAG report”.
On allegations that the CMD and an officer were removed as they had refused to sign the closure papers of the Saubhagya Scheme, Sangma said that the opposition parties and other parties like the UDP have been demanding the removal of the CMD and when they actually did that everyone starts saying that it is being done very suddenly.
He further said that the decision was taken to change the CMD due to the fact that an inquiry commission has been constituted to make sure that it is independent in every sense. CMD being a head of the MeECL cannot be there while the inquiry commission is conducting the inquiry, he pointed out.
Responding to another allegation of a clause being deleted in the tendering process of Saubhagya Scheme, Sangma said, “It will be wrong on my part to say anything now as the inquiry commission has been put into place. All schemes inclusive of Saubhagya will also be examined by independent inquiry commission and they will be going into all the nitty-gritty”.
Replying to a query on the closure of the Saubhagya scheme on the ground and the numbers of beneficiaries reached, Sangma said, “The closure report is duly vetted by the RAC which is a third party agency to make sure that due monitoring and verification has been there and there are other agencies who look into whether they are done or not and then these papers move up for closure”.
He further said that these are very clearly laid out guidelines by the Government of India and if the procedures have been followed as per the guidelines with a third party monitoring accordingly due diligence has been done.
“Rest assured all these details will be looked into and now that it has come out in the newspaper I am very sure the people who will be heading the inquiry commission will be taking note of this and I don’t want to make any comment as we have to respect the inquiry commission and allow them to do their work and come out with facts,” he added.
