6 BEL Officials Booked for Alleged Irregularities in Awarding Defence Contracts in Air Force’s IACSS

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an FIR against six officials of defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), including its former chairman and managing director (CMD), for alleged irregularities in awarding contracts in the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACSS).

According to the FIR, a Preliminary Enquiry conducted almost a year ago revealed alleged irregularities and violation of work contracts in Preliminary Project Report (PPR), Detailed Project Report (DPR) and Civil Work Contract under IACCS Phase-ll by six BEL officials in criminal conspiracy with three private firms — RD Konsultants, SR Ashok and Associates and CS Constructions from 2011 to 2017.

The CBI has booked Sunil Kumar Sharma, former general manager and CMD of Network Centering System of BEL, former GM RK Handa, then Senior Deputy General Manager Gurjit Singh, senior DGM SS Chaudhary, NCS BP Pahuja and DGM (Infra) of NCS, Manish Goyal. The FIR also includes names of RD Konsultants and Rahul Bhuchar of CS Constructions, SR Ashok & Associates and CS Constructions and others.

“On the basis of reference from Gokul Nagarkoti, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Defence, New Delhi, a Preliminary Enquiry was registered on 11.11.2021 against unknown officials of Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), M/s RD Konsultants and unknown persons and was entrusted to the undersigned for conducting enquiry,” the FIR stated.

The preliminary enquiry revealed that the Directorate of IACCS in letter dated May 27, 2011 to SK Sharma, GM (NCS & UH), BEL, Ghaziabad, asked for a Detailed Project Report to process the case and obtain sanction from the defence ministry for implementing the project for the next five IACCS nodes on a turnkey basis to include civil works alongside building of infrastructure.

The enquiry further revealed that BEL had already negotiated the price with RD Konsultants, and the noting of PK Bhola, main accused, for making a committee in this regard and the approval for the same by SK Sharma, GM (NCS), seems to be just a formality.

The PE further revealed that in the noting, RK Handa, GM (NCS), gave false justification for negotiation held with RD Konsultants, and the CMD finally approved the proposal to hire RD Konsultants for the preliminary work for Rs 13.236 lakh.

The enquiry further revealed while giving job contracts or making correspondence with IACCS Directorate SS Chowdhary, then senior DGM (marketing), BEL, preliminary project report was never mentioned, and the IACCS directorate had been only asking for the project report.

The consultancy contract for Preliminary Project Report, the Work Contract Manual and CVC Circulars, were violated by the BEL officials.

According to the FIR, the impression was made that there was no idea or discussion about the design and costing with BEL. In the DPR tender process, no reason was given for allotting an e-tender and the tender was called manually.

The enquiry has further revealed that facts were concealed in the DPR file and not taken into consideration while awarding the order of Rs 15.94 crore for preparing draft detailed project report to RD Konsultants.

The initial investigation also revealed that Sunil Kumar Sharma was involved in the conspiracy since the beginning of awarding the Preliminary Project Report contract to RD Konsultants. So, in the chain of the same criminal conspiracy, Sharma along with BP Pahuja and others approved the deviations of Least Cost Method, which is beyond his power, and 8% increase in cost recommended by RD Konsultants and involved the firm in the tender committee to select vendors for executing contracts. Therefore, L&T was awarded three costliest sites.

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