Chandigarh : Exposing the nexus between its officers and contractors in award of contracts, the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) Wednesday placed 11 officers, including senior engineers, under suspension.
The action followed a report by a committee of senior officers which found that certain officials had a nexus with contractors which was causing loss of millions of rupees to the DHBVN.
A DHBVN spokesman said that on receiving a complaint from a contractor about unscrupulous activities by the officials, DHBVN managing director Mohammed Shayin got the matter investigated.
“The committee found that there existed a nexus between officials of the Nigam and contractors, which resulted in quoting of rates in pool, causing loss to the Nigam, misappropriation of material drawn from stores, wrong measurements, wrong certifications and undue directions to release the withheld payments,” the spokesman said.
The committee, which submitted its report Tuesday, observed that due to the nexus between contractors and officials, the loss caused to the Nigam by these officers was intentional.
“It was astonishing to note that instead of putting a check on the misdeeds of juniors, the senior officers also indulged in malpractices,” the report said.
Following the submission of the report, Shayin ordered the suspension of Faridabad construction circle superintending engineer Vipon Chanda and 10 other engineers and officials.
Interestingly, three of these officers are under suspension on charges of bribery and malpractices in other cases.
Recommending serious action against the erring contractors also, Shayin pointed out that the contractor who complained in the case was himself part of the earlier nexus with the officers.
IANS
