New Delhi, February 10: The Delhi High Court has directed Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to initiate departmental action against CBI officials for allegedly preparing unfair tenders and lack of planning before issuing purchase orders for GSM telephones. instructed. mobile lines.
The High Court made it clear that it has not expressed any opinion on the merits of the allegations leveled against BSNL officials and any action initiated by the telecom company has to be taken to its logical conclusion on its merits. Needed
The court order came while disposing of a petition alleging that BSNL officials caused a loss of about Rs 1,000 crore to the exchequer by issuing unauthorized payments to a subsidiary of a Chinese firm by forging documents.
A Preliminary Inquiry (PE) has been registered by the CBI at the behest of this Court and the CBI after completion of the investigation has filed a status report before this Court. On perusal of the status report, this Court finds no reason to set aside the status report filed by CBI and pass any further directions.
“However, this court directs BSNL to initiate departmental action against its officials as suggested by the CBI. It is clarified that this Court has not expressed any opinion on the merits of the allegations leveled against the officials of BSNL. A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramaniam Prasad, in an order passed on Thursday, said any action initiated by BSNL must be taken to its logical conclusion on its own merits.
It said that as per the order of the apex court in the Latika Kumari case, the CBI is directed to provide a copy of the closure entry to the petitioner disclosing the reasons for closure of the complaint and not taking further action.
It gave liberty to the petitioner NGO Telecom Watchdog to take recourse to legal remedies as per law.
The petition filed by the NGO, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, had alleged that BSNL officials were in collusion with M/s ZTE Telecom. India Pvt Ltd, a Chinese contractor, and forged official records of BSNL so as to release “improper payment” of around Rs 1,000 crore to the firm.
The CBI, in its latest status report filed in the court in January, had said that though money was received by M/s Trimax IT & Infrastructure Ltd. from ZTE, it has not been established whether the money received by them was used to bribe officials. it was done. of BSNL.
However, the status report suggested that a departmental inquiry should be initiated against a senior official of BSNL for revising payment milestones without considering the efforts to acquire the sites, resulting in add-on work. resulted in financial losses and technical degradation. Contract with ZTE at 2011 rates.
It further suggested that, if necessary, departmental action be taken against BSNL officials for preparation of improper tenders and lack of planning before issuing purchase orders.
The petition claimed that in 2011, BSNL had invited tenders for North, South and East zones for 14.37 million GSM mobile telephone lines on turnkey basis and after a transparent competitive bidding process, ZTE was selected for all the three zones. emerged as the successful bidder at a cost of Rs. 4,204.85 crores.
The petition alleged that in its tender, BSNL had prescribed eight milestones for release of payments, according to which only 50 per cent payment was due till the delivery stage and the balance was to be released in phases upon installation and commissioning.
“During the implementation of the project, for reasons unknown, BSNL kept issuing purchase orders regardless of the demand in the area. As a result, a large quantity of ordered material started piling up at the stores of M/s ZTE, for which BSNL had already paid 50 per cent of the equipment cost including customs duty as per the tender conditions.
The petition claimed that certain officials of BSNL and ZTE had entered into a conspiracy to “illegally release” an undue payment of 95.10 per cent for all such uninstalled devices.
It had alleged that official documents were fabricated to release the 95.10 per cent payment “illegally” to ZTE.
“It is clear that the respondent (CBI) is not taking any action on the complaint filed by the petitioner for some unknown reasons, even in such a serious matter where hundreds of crores of rupees were illegally siphoned off in a criminal conspiracy among the officials of BSNL. have been issued and the petitioner had alleged that a Chinese contractor by forging documents in a contract worth Rs 4,204.85 crore.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)