Controversy over over-estimated bills during the ‘Momentum Jharkhand’ by one of the largest business bodies of the country, CII, was still fresh in the minds when another major conglomerate PHD Chamber has rattled the confidence of business community as well as the Government, leaving the stakeholders wondering whether such bodies actually work as per their mandate or chase their profit making dreams.
Identical to the case happened after the ‘Global Investors’ Summit’, the PHD Chamber that was event manager for the ‘31st Surajkund Internation Craft Mela’ held in Octover 2017, is now into controversy for producing ‘unauthentic’ bills with the Government. The bills are allegedly over and above the work order besides, the Chamber grabbing works for media management without tender and then exerting pressure on the dispensation to get those unaccounted expenses cleared.
As per the inputs coming in, the PHD Chamber against the provision of scope of work of the RFP fixed at Rs 2,47,50,300, went on submitting media bills amounting to Rs 98,35,471 for additional work done as per the DAVP rate. In addition to that, the Chamber also slapped invoices of Rs 76,25,638 under ‘additional work’ clamed to be carried out by it during the fair.
Notable is here to mention that the business body did not submit any supporting document or work order with the Department of Tourism, Art Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs of the State Government which had organised the affair in Haryana.
During a review meeting conducted by the Department all the issues were raised with the PHD Chamber representative present along with the whole list of incomplete works done by the business body, chosen as ‘event management company’ for the fair.
“They were told to make improvements into logo design, videos and several others. Also, we got complaints that artist, cultural performers and artisans hired for the mela were not paid fully. The Department had asked the PHD Chamber to submit the certified documents related to all the works done and after that only the bills put in place for final payment would be considered for clearance,” said an official of the Department.
Questions have also been asked about the works undertaken by the Chamber in the name of media management which ideally should have been the job of State’s information and public relations department. “The work was given to PHD Chamber without following the tendering process for Rs 1 crore. Then it showed that different media platforms like radio cabs, cinema, posters-banners etc were put in place in Delhi-NCR! There is no clarity whether the advertisements were given to the media based in Delhi-NCR, leave alone the question what was done to advertise the event through the media here in Jharkhand,” said a source.
looking at the constant pressure maintained by the Chamber to clear the dues it is claiming, a meeting was called on July 19 last. Inputs suggest that to prevent the media bills and those done without work order from going higher-ups in the Department and may be before the Cabinet for sanctioning, the PHD Chamber broke those into several smaller sub-heads so that it can get cleared at lower level itself in the Department.
When asked about the outcome of the July 19 meeting, Deputy Secretary with the Department Vidyanand Sharma Pankaj said that the bills were being verified. “Any decision over the bills against the works done in excess to the work order has not been taken yet. They have submitted documents which are being examined and then only any decision about making payment would be taken,” said the official.