CBI books officials of ONGC in Rs 80-cr scam case

The CBI has booked 13 senior serving and retired officials of the ONGC for alleged irregularities in giving a contract to a private company for supplying gas dehyrdation units for its Rajahmundry plant in Andhra Pradesh, causing a loss to the tune of Rs 80 crore, the agency said here today.

Those named in the FIR in connection with the alleged scam in 2014 include former executive director D G Sanyal, then director (Onshore) Ashok Verma and ex-DGM (Production) Arup Ratan Das.

They have been accused of abusing their official position in giving a contract worth Rs 312 crore given to Deep Industries Limited, an accused in the case, for supplying the gas dehyrdation units (GDUs), causing a loss of Rs 80 crores to ONGC, the Central Bureau of Investigation said.

The officials had awarded the contract to Deep Industries by overlooking the guidelines of the public sector undertaking and the fact that the company was ineligible due to technical deficiencies, the agency alleged.

Das allegedly made working papers for hiring and owning of the GDUs and prepared the estimates on a single quotation as against the requirement of three budgetary quotations.

The agency claimed that the only budgetary quotation was from Deep Industries of Rs 219 crore for hiring of the GDUs for three years.

The CBI said Das prepared a comparison statement between owning and hiring of the GDUs and showed that hiring would be viable as it would take less time in installation.

The tender was floated in December 2014 and the lone bidder Deep Industries -- was considered by the tender committee.

The company then raised the cost from Rs 219 crores to Rs 312 crores on false grounds, the CBI alleged.

The accused ONGC officials, before the final approval of the executive committee, directed the tender committee to go ahead, the agency claimed.