Two months after a vigilance probe established forgery and criminal conspiracy for claiming bogus payments, the Delhi Jal Board is yet to hand over the case against three contractor firms and three of its officials to the CBI for investigation. No order has been issued to stop payments to the firms either. The DJB suspended three officials in the case on September 26. The Indian Express had earlier sought details of action taken from Board officials. According to the Central Vigilance Commission's Vigilance Manual 2017, when a preliminary enquiry by the vigilance prima facie finds some substance in an allegation, a criminal investigation into offences involving bribery, forgery, cheating, falsification of records, etc must be entrusted to the CBI. The Manual also says that action for recovery of funds must not wait for completion of the investigation. In July 2018, the DJB’s vigilance department received complaints that its Division SDW-IX (Rithala sewage treatment plant in Rohini) floated a number of spurious tenders since April 2018, and issued bogus work orders to certain contractor firms who subsequently claimed payments without supplying any material or executing any work. While the work orders issued since April are worth Rs 5-7 crore, sources in the DJB claim the rot runs deeper and may involve bogus payments adding up to Rs 40-50 crore since 2016. Top DJB officials declined to comment on the quantum of the fraud. After preliminary investigation, the DJB's vigilance department, in an order on August 20, said a case of forgery and criminal conspiracy in connivance with the concerned divisional officers of the DJB was established. It put up the order before the CEO, DJB, who ordered blacklisting of three firms — DM Enterprises, Shubham Electrical and Paras Enterprises — with immediate effect. Already, on August 16, the CEO, DJB, had ordered three DJB officials — EE, AE and JE of the EE(SDW)-IX division — involved in the case to report to Director (A&P). They left their divisional posts to report to the headquarters and awaited postings. Since September 20, the DJB’s CEO and CVO have not responded to multiple phone calls and messages from The Indian Express. On September 26, the office of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is also chairperson of DJB, forwarded the queries to AAP MLA and DJB vice-chairperson Dinesh Mohaniya. Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone on three occasions, Mohaniya declined to comment on why the DJB did not hand over the investigation to the CBI after a vigilance inquiry prima facie established forgery and criminal conspiracy on August 20. On blacklisting the firms, Mohaniya on September 26 and 27 said showcause notices were served as part of the blacklisting process, and orders were issued to stop payments to the firms. As of October 9, the firms were yet to be blacklisted and there was no written order to stop their payments. On the DJB officials found guilty, Mohaniya on September 26 said a contractual employee was already terminated and appropriate action against three DJB employees would follow once the vigilance probe was completed. Later in the day, the DJB suspended the three officials — five weeks after they were found, prima facie, guilty. By October 1, the DJB also expanded the scope of the vigilance inquiry by including at least another four contractor firms in the probe. On October 9, Mohaniya said he could not set a deadline as that would interfere with the vigilance probe. Incidentally, executive engineer AS Kaushal, one of the three officials suspended in the present case, was chargesheeted by the CBI in a case of corruption in 2016. The case is in the Delhi High Court and Kaushal is to retire in a few months. AS Kaushal did not respond to phone calls from The Indian Express. As per the Vigilance Manual 2017, "enquiry into the allegations against officers under suspension, or those about to retire, should be given the highest priority." The Indian Express visited the three firms named in the August 20 vigilance order. A tailoring shop runs at the DDA Market, Yamuna Vihar address of Shubham Electrical. The tailors at work claimed they did not know the “real owner”, neighbours in the DDA market said the shop belonged to the family of a DJB employee. DM Enterprises was traced to Harlal Market in Rohini's Naharpur. A carpenter was setting up the shop and claimed a contractor hired him. Neighbours said the shop belonged to a man, who was employed by a goods’ supplier. Paras Enterprises in Old Mahavir Nagar was closed at the time of visit.
