9 contracts, ₹1,000cr profit: How one contractor raked in moolah
IRRIGATION SCAM Magnitude of the scandal involving senior bureaucrats, top officials of irrigation department and accused contractor Gurinder Singh has left even vigilance bureau officials stunned
CHANDIGARH: The magnitude of the irrigation scam involving senior bureaucrats, top officials of the department and contractor Gurinder Singh has left even the state investigating agency vigilance bureau (VB) stunned.
As per the investigations till now, Gurinder — kingpin of the scam—was favour ed to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore in only seven contracts the VB has investigated till date. He had many more projects from the department, which are yet to probed.
The sealed copy of the probe so far has been handed over to the Punjab and Haryana high court through an affidavit to challenge the bail pleas of the accused, which will come up for hearing on Monday.
An FIR in the case was registered at the vigilance police station, Mohali, on August 19, in which the bureau has booked contractor Gurinder ; Gulshan Nagpal, executive engineer (X EN ); Paramjit Singh Ghuman, chief engineer (retired); Bajrang Lal Singla, XEN; Harvinder Singh, chief engineer (retired); Kaminder Singh Deol, SDO (retired); Gurdev Singh Sian, chief engineer (retired); and Vimal Kumar Sharma, supervisor. All the accused are on run.
MODUSOPERANDI
As per the VB affidavit, the copy of which is with Hindustan Times, senior officials of the department used to draft the tender as per Gurinder’s suitability and he was awarded contracts of repair of drain ages worth over Rs 3000 crore in six years between 2016 and 2017.
The VB recovered emails and call records of Gurinder and the accused officials which prove that sensitive secret information regarding tenders was shared with Gurinder.
“In many cases, aides of Gurinder were found drafting terms and conditions of contracts for major works which were sent to the accused officials on their emails and shockingly were made part of the final tender conditions issued in DNIT (detailed notice inviting tender),” reads the VB report containing a summary of email exchanges.
“Gurinder not only used to give tailor-made tenders, but was also dictated the terms of such tenders to suit himself ,” reads the affidavit submit tec by additional inspector general (AIG) VB, Ashish Kapoor.
LOOT A MID NO COMPETITION
In six years between 2010 and 2016, accused contractor had little or no competition in these tenders resulting into a scenario wherein Gurinder was the only eligible single bidder for more than 19 tenders worth Rs 1,500 crore.
In many cases, the officials falsely certified his rates as the lowest which were actually twice the market rates.
With the help of his co-accused officials of the irrigation department, G ur in der bagged majority of the works o fthe ‘drainage’ and ‘kandi canal’ wings at highly inflated rates.
EX-CHIEF SECY’S ROLE UNDER SCANNER
The VB affidavit reads, “How strong and deliberate a deviation from the usual position taken by the Irrigation Department is seen from the fact that at the behest and request of the Secretary Irrigation, the Chief Secretary Punjab in meeting dated October 15, 2015, has specifically directed that while floating tenders, the departments are not to put restrictive conditions on mandatory attendance in pre-bid meetings. This confirms the fact that these conditions were deliberately imposed in order to grant undue benefit to the accused, Gurinder.”
Sarvesh Kaus hal was the chief secretary at that time. However, the bureau has not named him in the affidavit.
CONTRACTOR’S NEXUS WITH POLITICIANS, BUREAUCRATS
The mastermind and the main beneficiary in this case, contractor Gurinder was close to senior Shiomani Akal Dal( SAD) leaders and bureaucrats. He is said to be a hidden partner in a business with son of a senior bureaucrat from Punjab.
He remained so influential that a number of documents which were supposed to be in the custody of irrigation department have been recovered from his residence during raids by vigilance bureau.
Even letters written by the VB to the department seeking the record of works related to this scam have been found from his residence during the raids.
Interetingly, Gurinder’s income tax return also had a phenomenal increase from Rs 3 cr ore in 2010 to Rs 350 crore in 2016.