Thiruvananthapuram: Additional chief secretary (Finance) K.M. Abraham has unearthed 28 irregularities prima facie committed by Vigilance director Jacob Thomas in connection with the purchase of cutter suction dredger during the latter’s tenure as ports director. The Vigilance chief was even found guilty of various offences, including criminal conspiracy, forgery and corruption, besides causing pecuniary loss of Rs 14.96 crore to the state exchequer and pecuniary advantage of Rs 2.67 crore to the foreign firm. The 250-odd page inspection report by Mr. Abraham, which was made public under the Right to Information Act the other day, found that Mr Thomas, while serving as ports director, awarded the purchase of dredger to the foreign firm IHC Merwede overlooking and deliberately avoiding the lowest tender quoted by the public sector BEML during 2011-12 period.
“Jacob Thomas deliberately negotiated with IHC to hurriedly complete the deal with the single bidder IHC and awarded the purchase to it even though he was aware that the amount quoted by IHC of nearly Rs 20 crore was nearly 250 percent above the estimated and sanctioned amount of Rs 8 crore,” said the report. Mr. Abraham recommended an investigation against Mr. Thomas as well as retired chief mechanical engineer K. Shaji and P. Venugopal who acted as a representative of IHC. He also recommended action against a couple of officials of the secretariat, including additional secretary Jayasree and staff at the ports minister’s office, for not submitting the required documents to the finance inspection wing and thereby attempting to thwart the inspection.
As per Mr. Abraham’s report, the 28 irregularities included modification of specifications of the dredger to help IHC, sharing technical specifications in advance with the foreign firm, suppressing information about the tender from the government, illegally putting pressure on BEML from participating in the tender and overlooking the advice of deputy director of ports and finance officer to award the tender to BEML. The prima facie charges framed against the Vigilance chief in the inspection report include IPC 120 (B) for criminal conspiracy with IHC agents and retired chief mechanical engineer K. Shaji under IPC 415 for cheating, IPC 177 for furnishing false information and IPC 167 for public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury.
