Crores meant for Bihar flood victims flowed into babu black hole

Under the scanner is the role of Gautam Goswami, then Patna District Magistrate. A 1992 IAS officer, he was named by Time magazine, along with Shah Rukh Khan, as a Young Asian Hero, a ‘‘bureaucrat who helped flood victims.’’ Goswami resigned from the state government this January to join Sahara Group as a Vice-President.

Official records show that Goswami got Rs 13 crore as relief—he added another Rs 5 crore which the Chief Secretary alleges he diverted from Railway funds—and paid Rs 17.18 crore to Bihar Small Scale Industries Corporation (BSSIC), the sole organisation in charge of supplying relief material.

So far so good, the numbers add up.

But there’s a catch—and this is now the subject of an inquiry. Early this month, BSSIC said it supplied material worth only Rs 22 lakh and has so far been paid only Rs 13 lakh!

The rest of the money, documents show, went to an employee of BSSIC, one B K Singh. He appears in records as the man raising bills and getting payments from Goswami. BSSIC says there is no employee by that name.

When contacted, M Prasad, Managing Director, BSSIC, confirmed this to The Sunday Express: ‘‘We received only around Rs 13 lakh. We do not have an employee by the name of B K Singh.’’

‘‘The money could have been illegally siphoned off,’’ admits Chief Secretary K A H Subramaniam. ‘‘A vigilance inquiry is on.’’

What he doesn’t mention is that this alleged siphoning of funds happened under the nose of the state’s top bureaucracy. And even when the first objections were raised, no one called for any inquiry.

Consider the sequence of events:

• The Relief Department of the state government allotted Rs 13.4 crore for relief under the heads of Evacuation: Rs 3.14 crore, Cash doles: Rs 5.29 crore; Foodgrains: Rs 5.05 crore

• Goswami, deputed as the nodal officer for the entire state, withdrew the entire amount in 10 instalments beginning July 12 and ending in August, 2004.

• The day Goswami received the first installment, he also received a bill on official BSSIC stationery signed by one B K Singh asking for Rs 2 crore as advance. Over the next few weeks, Singh begins sending bills and Goswami orders payments to BSSIC. On July 15, it’s of Rs 50 lakh, Rs 1 crore on July 19, Rs 1.2 crore on July 21 and so on. Total: Rs 17.18 crore.

• On August 14, Goswami reported he had incurred an expense of Rs 56 crore. He had already received Rs 13.4 crore and so he asked for an additional Rs 43 crore. His breakup: Evacuation: Rs 20 crore, Cash doles: Rs 8 crore, Foodgrain: Rs 15 crore.

• Goswami attached details of what he called the ‘‘distribution’’ of materials by air and road.

• It was at this stage that the first red flag went up. K K Choubey, Under Secretary (Audit) in the Relief Department, raised objections to Goswami’s demand based on startling discrepancies in his letter.

• Truckloads of relief were shown as being sent to areas which had no access by road. The most blatant irregularity, Choubey pointed out, was that Rs 8 crore was shown as having been paid in cash. Choubey asked: It’s technically possible that bills could be pending for suppliers of materials but who distributed cash doles in advance and where did the money for that come from?

• Phuleswar Paswan, Deputy Secretary, Relief Department, endorsed these objections. Relief Commissioner Chandragupt Ashokvardhan said he favoured a vigilance inquiry but then proceeded on leave on August 21.

• On September 13, Relief Commissioner-in-charge Shishir Sinha forwarded the file to Chief Secretary with no comments. Chief Secretary Subramaniam sat on the file until December 23.

• It was only after the audit wing made inquiries about the file did Subramaniam return it. With just one noting: ‘‘The relief commissioner may take appropriate action.’’

• On April 4, 2005, new Patna DM Sudhir Kumar wrote to MD, BSSIC asking if the administration owed them money—Goswami had claimed payments of Rs 43 crore were pending. Kumar also asked them what payments have been already received by the BSSIC.

On April 7, BSSIC MD replied: ‘‘We supplied material worth Rs 22,63,500 and received payment of Rs 13,52,221…We have not supplied anything more. And we have not received any more money than the above Rs 13,52,221.” BSSIC also denied it had any employee by the name of B K Singh.

(Tomorrow: Tea & snacks Rs 11 lakh, Hotel bills Rs 37 lakh)

PART-II: Relief truck sets out with sattu, delivers polythene bags