IMPHAL April 2: A suspected fraudulent payment of Rs 49.84 lakh was paid to a Kolkota based supply firm for supply of seeds by the Agriculture department. A Comptroller and Auditor General report states that , the records of the said department was thoroughly checked and found that a supply order of soyabean and blackgram for distribution to the farmers of the state was availed from M/s Tirupati Agro Seed Distributors. The supply order was placed at the request of the firm on January 2008 and before obtaining administrative approval and expenditure sanction ,which was later accorded on 9 June 2008. Also, the quantity of seeds to be ordered were finalized at the Directorate level without having any basic inputs of the number of benificaries from the district level at the time of placing the order.
The firm was paid Rs 49.84 lakh based on two proforma bills both dated June 2 ,2008 and 90 metric tons of seeds were stated to have been received between June 9 and 13 of 2008 through three consignments transported by three trucks.
For each consignment , a delivery challan was also submitted by the firm mentioning the details of the consignment and mode of transportation. The Agriculture department had stated that the seeds were produced by M/s Singh Beej Bhander, Morar, Gwalior and these seeds were duly certified by the Madhya Pradesh State Seed Certification Agencies (MPSSCA). The said delivery appeared doubtful because the address of M/s Singh Beej Bhandar was untraceable and further MPSSCA had clarified that they had not certified the seeds. Further,one delivery challan was prepared two days ahead of the date of preparation of the proforma bills and another two delivery challans were prepared on the same day of preparation of the porforma bills. As delivery of the goods had been made ,payment should have been made on actual bills and not as advance on the basis of proforma bills.
Another doubtful circumstance was that two consignments which were delivered on June 9 and 13 of 2008according to the delivery challans were shown to have been delivered by the same driver. Considering the distance of 1565 kilometers between Imphal and Kolkota, delivery of the two consignments by the same driver within a gap of five days is not possible and the quantity of soyabean shown as received in the stock register was 45 metric tons, whereas as per delivery challans,only 30 metric tons was delivered. This was also impossible as there was no other consignment on record during the period.This events led to the suspected fraudulent payment of Rs 49.84 lakh by the Agriculture department.
