Cracking the whip on erring officials, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Monday ordered the immediate suspension and initiation of major penalty proceedings against six senior officers of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) after a CBI inquiry found them guilty of committing “serious irregularities and wrong-doing” at various airports, including Chennai, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Coimbatore, Kozhikode, Mangalore and Tiruchi.
The CBI investigation revealed that L. L. Krishnan, Executive Director (Commercial); R. L. Saran, DGM (Finance); S. Basu, Additional GM (Commercial); Arun Mehan, DGM (Operations); P. K. Chadha, DGM (Operations); and Ravi Verma, GM, favoured a company in award of contracts for ground handling services at certain airports, an official statement issued here on Monday said.
The Minister also directed the filing of FIR against Prem Bajaj, Managing Director of Bhadra International, the suspect company; R. V. Narayanan, retired ED (Commercial); Ajit Kumar Dubey, retired ED (Finance), AAI; and others for their acts of manipulation, forgery, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and corruption under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. It was also decided that action be initiated against the company for cancellation of the award/contract and recovery of dues, the statement added.
Mr. Singh also directed the AAI to take corrective measures to prevent participation of defaulter contractor/parties (even if the default is by their sister/ related concerns) in future tender processes by incorporating suitable provisions in the rules and regulations.
Following complaints of irregularities in award of contract for ground handling services by the AAI, the CBI conducted a preliminary enquiry. The probe into award of contract for ground handling services in the Chennai and Kolkata airports found that the officers of the AAI made certain deviations from the Commercial Manual in the Notice Inviting Tender (NIT), the statement said.
The deviation in particular included deliberate incorporation of the term tie-up arrangement in the eligibility criteria as stipulated in the NIT to make Bhadra International India Ltd. eligible in joint venture technical agreement with Novia International Consulting APS for participating in the bid process. The justification by the officers that the deviation in the NIT was made as an improvement, keeping in view similar tenders floated by DIAL and MIAL, were found misleading in the inquiry as the NIT of DIAL and MIAL have not used terms as tie-up arrangement.
The probe further revealed that TDI International, a sister company of Bhadra International, also owned by Mr. Bajaj, had a huge outstanding payment of Rs. 36 crore to the AAI in an advertisement contract. Further, Mr. Narayanan, who was liable for drafting the NIT, joined Bhadra International India Ltd. as its vice president after retirement. Taking serious exception to this, the Minister directed the AAI to suitably amend its service rules by incorporating provisions for seeking the permission by retired employees to seek employment within two years after retirement.
· Erring officials favoured a particular company in awarding contracts for ground handling at certain airports
· Deviation included deliberate incorporation of the term tie-up arrangement in the eligibility criteria
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