Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Ajit Singh has ordered immediate suspension and initiation of major penalty proceedings against six senior officers of Airports Authority of India (AAI). A CBI inquiry has found these officers involved in committing irregularities and favouring a particular company namely M/s Bhadra International India Ltd in award of contracts for ground handling services at certain airports.

The officers are Shri L.L. Krishnan, Executive Director (Commercial), Shri R. L. Saran, DGM (Finance), Shri S. Basu, Additional GM (Commercial), Shri Arun Mehan, DGM (Operations), Shri P. K. Chadha, DGM (Operations) and Shri Ravi Verma, GM.  

The Minister has also ordered filing of the First Information Report (FIR) against Shri Prem Bajaj, MD of the suspect company, Shri R. V. Narayanan, Retired ED (Commercial), Shri A. K. Dubey, Retired ED (Finance), AAI and others for their acts of manipulation, forgery, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and corruption under Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act.  

It has also been decided that action may be initiated against M/s Bhadra International India Ltd. for cancellation of the award/contract and recovery of dues.  Shri Singh has 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 had conducted a preliminary enquiry. The enquiry into award of contract for ground handling services at 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 deviation in particular included deliberate incorporation of the term “tie-up” arrangement in the Eligibility Criteria as stipulated in the NIT to make M/s Bhadra International India Ltd. eligible in joint venture technical agreement with M/s Novia International Consulting APS for participating in the Bid process.  The justification by the officers that the deviation in the NIT had been made as improvements  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.

As per the legal opinion, the term “tie-up” arrangement has no legal status/sanctity. The experience and turnover of the lead company was to be taken into account. In this case, the lead company is M/s Bhadra International India Limited which is doing ground handling work while the turnover and experience of M/s Novia International Consultancy were counted. 

The enquiry further found that the financial bid of consortium of M/s Bhadra International India Ltd. and  M/s Novia International was tampered after opening of the tender by modifying the rate of royalty payable to AAI by  the consortium so that it becomes greater than the quotes of other two competing companies and  the consortium could win the contract.  The figure of “NINE AND HALF” was manipulated to make it “NINETEEN AND HALF” interpreting it Nineteen & half while evaluating the tender.                                           

(You need to login first to read complete news).
New User? Register for FREE!
» Back to Travel News