Committee clears Cong-NCP government on procurements

Mumbai: A committee headed by former chief secretary Swadhin Kshatriya has given a clean chit to procurements worth

Rs 10 crore by nine state government departments done during the last 15 years of the Congress and NCP rule. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had ordered the probe in 2015, after one of his ministers, Pankaja Munde was accused in the Chikki scam. The pan-el did not uncover anything irregular. But that has not satisfied the chief minister, who has now ordered a probe by the economic offence wing and directorate of accounts and treasury.

Besides Mr Kshatriya, the other members of the committee included the then finance secretary Sudhir Shrivastav and then industries secretary Apurva Chandra. The re-port was submitted to the CM in March 2017 before Mr Kshatriya retired.

The committee probed into procurements above Rs 10 crore undertaken by nine government departments, namely agriculture, home, health, social justice, women and child welfare, rural development, school education, information technology and tribal.

A report accessed by this newspaper did not mention anything objectionable in the inquiry. In fact, it has recommended independent inquiries by the respective departments if necessary.

As the scope of the committee is limited, the report said, “One has to check the system of rate of contract and from whom the purchase was done. The committee does not have that probe mechanism in the limited period and hence the officials responsible for recruitment can have an independent inquiry.”