More flak: ‘UT made arbitrary allotments,favoured a firm’

Slamming the Administration,the team of special auditors has remarked in the report,“The audit could not find any sound basis for fixing the rate of allotment of land in the IT Park project… (which) was found to be arbitrary. The rates were decided considering rates of certain cities,which cannot be compared with Chandigarh,and thus may have indirectly benefited many companies.”

Citing examples where the Administration caused loss of lakhs of rupees to the government exchequer,the auditors mentioned,“M/s Wipro Limited had made a request to Director,IT,Chandigarh on May 16,2005 for allotting land in RGCTP,main campus site. Without calling any bids,the Finance Secretary,vide their memo dated January 1,2006,allotted 30 acres of land at Rs 40 lakh per acre,approved by Administrator on December 27,2005.”

Highlighting anomalies in direct allotments of spaces in the IT park,the report says,“From available records,it was seen that in reference of Assistant Estate Officer’s allotment letter,a Deed of Conveyance had to be executed between both the parties,but the same had not been made till the date of audit,which has resulted in a direct loss of Rs 72 lakh. Even the (Finance) department has not taken any action so far.”

“In the allotment letter,no time frame was set to execute the deed,which is a lapse on part of the department. It is nowhere mentioned that in case of non-execution of deed by the allottee,what sort of action will be taken against him,” the report adds.

The report says the Administration favoured a particular company.

“After going through the records made available to audit,it has been noticed that the request for allotting the land was received on January 15,2006,whereas the process of allotting land to Tech Mahindra was already in process from January 6,2006,by the Director,Information Technology. (This) shows that the agency had been favoured and also that there was serious lapse on the part of the Director,Information Technology. Further,it was seen that the rate of Rs 40 lakh per acre in reference of Finance department was allowed to the agency,” the report says.

Condemning the Administration for not following General Financial Rules (GFR) — a mandatory requirement for allotments through bidding process — the audit report adds,“In absence of any justification,it is not clear to audit (whether) market rates of adjoining areas — Panchkula and Mohali — were considered while fixing the rates.”

“From the record,it is seen that the advertisement through wide publicity in national newspaper for allotment of land in RGCTP had not been made and the bidding process as per GFR was not followed,” the report says.

A senior UT official,on the other hand,said,“How can one compare the price of showrooms in Manimajra and Sector 17. The locations definitely enhance or reduce the price of land. Whatever we did was absolutely justified and done in order to promote IT in Chandigarh.”