Genco officials in the dock for misuse of funds

BY V L SRINIVASAN

Published on Feb 11, 2007

Hyderabad: Half a dozen officials of the APGenco including three superintending engineers are in the dock for alleged misuse of funds in the renovation of corporate blocks in third floor of the Vidyut Soudha building between 2002 and 2005.

The officials - T V Hanumanth Rao, Laxminarayana and Y Ram Mohan Rao (superintending engineers), executive engineer (civil) M V Ramana Murthy, assistant executive engineers (civil) K Babu Rao and T Hari Narayana Reddy - stand indicted by the Vigilance & Enforcement (V&E) Wing for incurring wasteful and avoidable expenditure to the tune of about Rs 7.30 lakh by approving the higher rates. Among them, Hanumanth Rao and Laxminarayana have already retired while the remaining four are still in service.

In its report submitted to the State Government last month, the V&E said that after APGenco decided to renovate the corporate blocks in the third floor of the Vidyut Soudha with centralised air conditioning system at a cost of Rs 2.45 crore, the accused officials obtained quotations from only three firms and awarded the work to one of the bidders M/s Shapoorji Pallonji & Co Limited instead of ascertaining correct market rates.

The V&E report requested the Special Chief Secretary (Energy) A K Goyal to issue instructions for proper preparation of estimates and decide rates for different items of work in future duly following provisions and rates etc followed in other Government departments. Goyal has also been asked to initiate appropriate disciplinary action against the erring officers for the lapses.

However, one of the accused officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that a former chief engineer Sanyasi Raju and former superintending engineer Gandhi Choudhary circulated a note stating that the renovation work, which can bestow a corporate look to APGenco, can be executed only by a few firms.

The note mentioned six firms - Intech Classic Interiors, Shapoorji Pallonji, In Style Furnishers, Toleti Office Makers, Genesis Construction Limited and Mitsur Kensetsu India Limited. The note was also approved by the Board of Directors including then CMD Parthasarathi.

‘‘Of them, the first three companies responded by submitting quotations and Shapoorji Pallonji was chosen as itquoted lowest rates,’’ the official told Express.