J&K: Corruption case registered against IT officials

The Jammu and Kashmir State Vigilance Organisation today registered a corruption case against senior officers of the Information Technology Department for making procurements without following the financial code, causing huge loss to the state exchequer.
"A case was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act against officials of Information Technology Department after completion of preliminary investigation," a spokesman of Jammu and Kashmir State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) said.
It was alleged that "from the period 2011 to 2015, the IT Department (Jammu and Kashmir e-Governance Agency) has made procurement of hardware and software items and other goods from different vendors or suppliers without following financial code or tendering process for their pecuniary benefits as such have put loss to the state exchequer worth corers of rupees", the spokesman said.

He said the verification was conducted in response to a government order issued by the General Administration Department on June 30, 2016 which was followed by Special Audit Report on August 10, 2016 received from the Information Technology Department.
"During verification, it was revealed that the Department of Information Technology did not bother to adopt tendering mode for procurements and also most of such procurements have been made without the approval of competent authority or Governing Body and without adopting, the procedure laid down for such procurements," the spokesman said.
He said verification also revealed that the officials made undue payments through cheques raised by illegal means and resorted to tampering of records.

The case was registered against then system executive- cum-additional chief executive officer Dara Singh, financial advisor and CAO Khem Raj, Director (Finance) Satnam Singh, then senior Assistant Cashier Farooq Ahmad and others.
"...By abusing their official positions, these officials have illegally conferred undue pecuniary advantage upon themselves and to the blue-eyed beneficiary suppliers and Vendors, thereby causing huge loss to the state exchequer," the spokesman said.
He said the SVO has taken up further investigation into the case but no arrest has been made so far.