Former State Finance Commission chairman Virendra Pandey, who is associated with 'Tatpar' institution, has made a complaint with the lok Ayog, accusing the School Education Department of violation of purchase rules and corruption in the purchase of furniture worth Rs 11.78 crore.
Slapping allegations on the then additional chief secretary of School Education Department Sunil Kumar and the then managing director of National Secondary Education Campaign R Sangeeta, he demanded probe into the issue. In his complaint, Pandey alleged that the Central Government had upgraded total 718 pre secondary schools – 218 in 2009-10 and 500 in 2010-11 – into primary schools. The Union Government had given 100 per cent amount for building construction, furniture, library etc.
Under this scheme, decision had been taken in the Secondary Education Mission meeting, presided over by the then additional chief secretary, education department, Sunil Kumar, held on February 6, 2012 for purchase of furniture worth Rs 4.42 crore for 60 schools and the purchase order had been issued on March 9, 2012.
R Sangeeta had prepared the agenda and abstract for the meeting. It was decided in the meeting to purchase the furniture through CSIDC factories situated at Abhanpur and Bhilai. In another meeting of the executive committee held on June 21, 2012, a decision had been taken to purchase furniture worth Rs 7.36 crore for 100 schools from these factories.
He said that as per rule it was necessary to call tenders for purchase of furniture. The purchase had been made in gross violation of the store purchase rules of the Government, he added. He said in his complaint that it was clearly mentioned in the minutes of the meeting that under the National Education Campaign, as high quality furniture has to be given to the schools, purchase should be made through CSIDC factories. It means that the furniture being purchased from the private manufacturers approved by the CSIDC were not of high quality. The most important part of the decision was that the furniture should be purchased through the factories and not from the factories, he alleged.
Pandey said that the intention of the decision makers was to purchase the furniture manufactured by the factories or any other institution. As per rule, CSIDC is not competent to supply the materials after purchasing it from other institutions. While taking the decision, the production capacity of both the factories had been taken into consideration and order had been issued to purchase large quantity of furniture. The bad effect of which was that furniture could not be supplied to the schools in time. In the whole process, no arrangement had been made to check the quality of the furniture supplied, he alleged.
He said that it was deliberately not mentioned in the purchase order regarding high quality specification, quality check certificate etc, as it was done with a deliberate intention of committing high-level corruption. He alleged that the rate of some of the furniture purchased was comparatively three times more, in which the Government suffered a loss of more than Rs 5 crore. The quality of the furniture supplied in the schools was not good. The education department had received many a complaints about breakage of furniture, but no action has been taken in this regard so far, whereas, it has been hushed up. The Government should recover the financial loss, he added.