FCI had checked all bills, state minister told Pawar

Meet CC Singpho, minister for civil supplies, government of Arunachal Pradesh. A veteran politician, Singpho was the minister for civil supp...

Meet CC Singpho, minister for civil supplies, government of Arunachal Pradesh. A veteran politician, Singpho was the minister for civil supplies in the BJP-backed government headed by Gegong Apang, that ruled from August 2003 to October 2004. After Apang switched to Congress and swept the elections, Singpho was entrusted with two important departments, one being the civil supplies.

‘‘It is true that there have been irregularities,’’ Singpho told The Indian Express, referring to the ‘‘Hill Transport Subsidy’’ scandal, ‘‘that is why we have stopped the system of headload carriage since last July. Our government has also made it mandatory to carry out strict scrutiny before making payment of bills to contractors.’’

A confidant of Chief Minister Apang, Singpho’s term has seen record payments by FCI to his department as HTS reimbursements for carriage contractors.

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Singpho has tried to defend himself by writing a letter to Sharad Pawar, Union minister for civil supplies and consumer affairs. His letter of April 11, 2005, claimed all bills were cleared only after scrutiny by ‘‘competent authority of the FCI’’.

In short, he tried to pass the buck.

Two months before Singpho wrote this letter, FCI’s Guwahati-based zonal manager reminded his senior regional manager of a government rule that said: ‘‘The concerned state government has to indicate the cheque number, date and the amount by which payment has been released to the transport contractors before reimbursement is allowed by the FCI.’’

The senior regional manager brushed this aside as ‘‘impractical’’.

Indeed, the senior regional manager told his immediate superior, the zonal manager, in a letter dated March 17, 2005: ‘‘There is no reason to believe that the funds have been diverted’’ by Arunachal’s civil supplies department.

The zonal manager had, in February 2, 2005, written a letter to the senior regional manager after a visit to Tawang, during which he had found that ‘‘the state government is reportedly claiming huge amount of HTS on account of headloads’’. He had also put it on record that ‘‘the payment of heavy amount of HTS on account of headloads has been a matter of serious concern at all levels (in FCI)’’.

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More seriously, at any one time, FCI is authorised to release only upto Rs 10 crore as ‘‘on account payment’’ to the government of Arunachal Pradesh. The FCI regional office in Guwahati released Rs 340.60 crore in March 2004 alone.

When the scandal finally came to light, a meeting was held at the Union Food Ministry on March 22. It directed FCI to undertake a special audit of all HTS bills settled in Arunachal Pradesh.

This meeting put on record the fact that ‘‘the entire cost of transportation from the base depots of FCI to the FPSs was being claimed as reimbursement under HTS scheme, without strictly applying the condition imposed vide the 28.11.1995 circular [of the Central government]’’.

Meanwhile, a special audit team and a CAG team have already started work in FCI’s regional office in Guwahati. In Itanagar, the state government has asked the state police to investigate the ever-growing HTS swindle.

FCI SCANDAL PART I

FCI SCANDAL PART II

FCI SCANDAL PART IV

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