Former Delhi Dialogue Commission member-secretary Asish Joshi has filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Secretary Rajendra Kumar accusing him of financial irregularities by awarding works without floating tenders and thus causing financial loss to the city administration. Joshi has sought a probe into the role of Kumar when the latter was with departments of education, IT and Health of the Delhi Government.
In his complaint to ACB chief MK Meena, the senior bureaucrat claimed that Kumar, as director of Education (from May, 2002 to February, 2005) and later Secretary (IT), Secretary (Health) and Commissioner (VAT), had allegedly set up various companies to award work orders of departments without floating tenders which caused “financial loss” to the city Government.
“Rajender Kumar formed a company, Endeavors Systems Private ltd, along with Dinesh Gupta, who used to supply stationary to the education department, and Ashok Kumar, a DASS cadre officer who had worked with Rajendra Kumar for a long time. In 2007, he (Kumar) became secretary (IT) in Government of NCT of Delhi.
During this period, he got this company empanelled with Public Sector Unit (PSU) viz ICSIl. ICSIl is an IT PSU, and (it) being a PSU (it) can do work for departments without tenders… It is understood that IT related work and SAP licence for more than Rs50 crore were got done through this modus operandi,” Joshi alleged.
Shunted bureaucrat Joshi — who had a public spat with DDC vice-chairman Ashish Khetan, is now working with Union IT Ministry — said, “The modus-operandi was simple. Form a company and then get it empanelled with a PSU and then give orders to the PSU which in turn gets the works done through the empanelled company (Endeavours Systems Pvt ltd).”
ACB chief MK Meena said, “The allegation is serious in nature and we are probing into the matter.” The ACB is planning to serve a notice on Rajendra Kumar to join the probe.
Joshi said that it is learnt that a chain of such companies were formed between 2009 and 2014 in the fields of energy, real estate, and coaching, with Ashok Kumar as a common director in these companies. “It is learnt that some common directors are relatives of Rajendra Kumar. For example, one of the directors of one such company M/s Pixel Infotech Private limited is Pratibha Sahay, who is said to be cousin of Rajendra Kumar’s wife Nandini Sahay,” alleged Joshi.
Joshi said that during the course of implementation of e-governance initiatives as the Chief Digitization Officer in the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), he had learnt about Rajendra Kumar’s “corrupt” practices related to the IT. He claimed that he (Joshi) was later abruptly repatriated by the Delhi Government in violation of the DOPT orders of 2010. Despite repeated attempts by The Pioneer, Rajender Kumar could not be reached for his comments.