The Centre has ordered punitive action against eight top officials of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for fraudulently obtaining leave travel concession (lTC) and travelling abroad in violation of rules that permit only domestic travel.
A day after The Pioneer reported (August 5, 2015) that some officials in the authority were trying to “protect” the culprits and that an investigating officer was asked to manipulate the vigilance report, Road Transport Secretary and acting NHAI Chairman Vijay Chibber directed authorities to record adverse remarks in the guilty officials’ Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) and “also
recover the
excess amount (incurred by them) with interest”. Incidentally, Chibber’s predecessor at NHAI RP Singh had given a clean chit to the officials.
The lTC scam was first exposed by The Pioneer in September 2012. After several public sector enterprises (PSEs), sitting and former MPs were found using lTC by fraudulent means, a CBI probe was ordered into the scandal. The lTC is not permitted under “package” and the “extra” expenditure incurred on foreign visits cannot be separated from that “package” deal offered by the private tour operator.
NHAI CVO Satish Chandra has been directed to “recover” the “extra” amount incurred on foreign visits from the officials of the rank of Joint Secretaries and above and send a factual report to Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). Chandra is Member (Finance) of the NHAI.
MoRTH sources said that Chhiber was irked by the fact that the dealing official was “pressurised” to process
the foreign visits proposal by then General Manager (Administration) VK Sharma in spite of being informed that “lTC package is not permitted under lTC rules”. Sharma and seven others availed the lTC.
The CVO this month recorded that “the officers of Administration Division facilitated their irregular travel. They knew that visit to Singapore and Malaysia was part of lTC package but they did not put up the facts before the Member (Admn) and the then NHAI Chairman”.
In a startling revelation early this month, senior NHAI official Radhey Dua probing the lTC scam, had accused top officials of pressurising her to manipulate the vigilance enquiry report. In a letter to the General Manager (Vigilance), former Deputy General Manager (Administration) Radhey Dua complained that that she was “put under immense pressure by the officers concerned who had direct proximity to the then NHAI Chairman to process the case (lTC scam) as per their wishes”.
After the complaint, the Vigilance Division sprung into action and noted that after going through the case stated “changes been made in factual report earlier submitted” and thus directed officials concerned to submit a fresh draft report with inputs incorporated from the NHAI Chairman (now Chibber) and be sent to Road Transport and Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari.
The officials who availed the foreign lTC (Singapore, Malaysia and Sri lanka) by fraudulent means are General Manager (Administration) VK Sharma; Chief General Managers (Tech) APS Sethi and BP Kukrety, and other top officers Ajit Kumar, Manoj Sharma, KV Sharma, Atul Kumar, and Ashok Wasson.