Making Circus out of CRIS: Stage Set for Malfeasance, Part-III
Note: This is a whistle blower account which we confirmed from multiple sources. We welcome counter view of those who are named and assure them of space to give their point of view. Further we request Minister and CRB to investigate the claims made by the whistle blower which have been found true by several serving railway officers!
Ep79: रेलवे के ‘डीप-स्टेट’ को नहीं भेद पा रही मोदी सरकार!
We are publishing a multipart article on how manipulation of rules by the #DeepState continue unabated, defeating the intent and effort of #ModiGovernment in the Ministry of Railways. First and Second part can be seen here: “Making Circus out of CRIS-Selection of Satya Kumar: Part-I” and “Making Circus out of CRIS: Blatant disregard of the rules, Part-II”
This brings us to the concluding part of the story, to which we alluded earlier, regarding how #SatyaKumar has mismanaged Centre for Railway Information Systems (#CRIS).
Ever since ascending to the apex position in the organisation, Mr #GVLSatyaKumar has been running amok has been behaving like a bull in a China Shop. He has shown utter disregard for time tested rules and procedures, and destroyed well established systems, checks and balances in the organisation in the name of so-called reforming and streamlining CRIS. He has ruthlessly removed whoever has come in his way or in the way of his insidious agenda. The number of transfer orders issued in his tenure of one and a half years are unprecedented in the history of #CRIS and must be many times more than the total number of transfer orders issued in the more than 35 years of existence of the organisation.
Particularly bothersome are his handling of the portfolios of Administration, Finance, HR and Purchase. These last one and half years under Satya Kumar have seen two GMs of finance, three GMs of HRD, four Registrars and four GMs of Purchase. All these are administrative positions and not project based ones, therefore such an unusually large number of changes are sure to raise eyebrows and have indeed raised many questions.
He started off with unceremoniously removing an outstanding lady officer from the position of GM/HRD, an officer who is a known powerhouse of rules, procedures and knowledge, who was proving to be a bottleneck in his one of the early primary agenda of providing undue benefits to some of the undeserving engineers of CRIS. The immediate goal of Satya Kumar was to help all the mediocre engineers who had been given below outstanding gradings by their group heads, because an outstanding grading in the #APAR is considered a matter of right by all the engineers of CRIS.
Anything below that is considered an adverse grading and is always vehemently protested. Agreeing with this demand for reasons best known to him, or for obvious reasons, Satya Kumar wanted to award all such engineers (those who had been graded less than outstanding by their controlling officers for a period when Satya Kumar was not even holding the position of MD) a score of 100 out of 100, while the truly deserving and meritorious ones, who had been graded outstanding had received scores in the 90s.
Unfortunately for Satya Kumar, the next GM/HRD he brought in turned out to be an even more stickler for rules, and created more problems than solving them. One of the reasons he also fell out of favour and was replaced was that he rejected outright a laughable demand of these contract engineers of CRIS to be elevated to Level-15 (Additional Secretary Level position in the Government) as a matter of right.
The #Registrar is the fulcrum of the administrative activities in CRIS and is also the Secretary of the Governing Council of the organisation. Any agenda to be put up before the #Executive Committee or the #Governing Council has to be co-ordinated by the Registrar. All the illegitimate demands being made by the CRIS engineers and wholeheartedly supported by MD/CRIS for being pursued before the EC and GC have been resisted by various Registrars. This is one of the important reasons why the post has seen four incumbents in a matter of around one year.
As far as #Purchase is concerned, the less said the better. Satya Kumar removed the incumbent head of purchase and brought in an unprecedented three GMs in his place, the so-called #Trimurti all in the name of speeding up of #procurement procedures. Hidden behind this facade was the ulterior motive of carrying out gross #corruption by indulging in unholy dalliances with #vendors, some believe at the behest of higher ups in the #RailwayBoard. While one of the Trimurti of new GMs clearly saw through this agenda and fled CRIS at the earliest available opportunity, (despite elaborate wooing by Satya Kumar), the remaining two have projected a study in contrasts.
While one is stubbornly following the rules and refuses to tow Satya Kumar’s line, the other is wholeheartedly supporting Satya Kumar in his nefarious agenda. It is learnt that the blue eyed boy confidently calls up the CEOs of tier two System Integrator firms and asks for his cut with unabashed shamelessness, but is careful not to touch the tier one vendors, who might have direct access to the Hon’ble MR. He is well recognised in the industry as the #extortion agent of Satya Kumar, who in turn is seen as the collection agent of higher ups in the Board. This has led to a situation where even #tenders pertaining to the other stubborn GM are allocated to the blue eyed boy.
The result is that vendors who toe the line get their cases decided and those who don’t see their tenders delayed or discharged. Ironically, all the important project contracts currently being executed by CRIS, be it modernisation of PRS, PMS and UTS; implementation of FOIS DR, HHT, RFID, RTIS, MDMS, SLAM, GOAL, Route Optimisation and many more were to the credit of the officer who was unceremoniously removed. And what has been the highlight of the Trimurti under Satya Kumar: CRIS has become a graveyard of tenders and a den of extortion.
#Finance is at an altogether different level. While the earlier GM/Finance was under so much pressure (the pressure started with the proclivity of Satya Kumar to appoint consultants at the drop of a hat, and he wanted a Professor of an IIT with questionable credentials by bypassing the rules) that he had to take premature repatriation and take refuge in a position in Board, the new incumbent is a lady officer whose only claim to fame is a shared passion for dashboards with Satya Kumar.
Dashboards, which can be designed by schools or college interns nowadays, was the reason why Satya Kumar was able to position himself as the head of CRIS in the first place, as he managed to charm the hon’ble MR by showing some colourful charts while he was DRM/Mumbai Central.
People in the know are surprised as to how the Minister for Railways (#MR), himself an electronics engineer, was unable to see that #charlatan for what he was, an #imposter whose sole objective was to project himself as the be all and know all.
This lady finance officer has no qualms in towing the official line, as her modus operandi is always to be in the good books of the higher ups, and the greatest skill she possesses is the ability to organise great kitty parties and amazing club evenings. To top it all, she now has managed to bring in her confidante into CRIS, wasting official time. The balance is being struck by Director/Finance, an officer of outstanding #ability and #integrity who refuses to be cowed down by the openly threatening tone of the increasingly frustrated Satya Kumar, and is perhaps the sole bulwark against the many sources of stress and pressure tactics in the organisation at present.
While this part has focussed on the #administrative positions in CRIS manipulated by Satya Kumar, the game played with Project Heads will a need a full story in itself. But no story on Satya Kumar can be complete without at least a passing reference to the manipulations in positions of Project Heads. A trait of Satya Kumar well recognised by now by all and sundry all over #IndianRailways in general and in CRIS in particular, is his inability to stand anyone who is likely to steal the limelight away from him.
A perfect example of this fallout is the fate of the project group of #Data Analytics on Indian Railways. The officer who toiled hard for more than three years to set up the group was treated with #contempt by Satya Kumar just because of the growing proximity of the officer to higher ups in Railway Board and his direct channel of communication with the #CRB as well as the hon’ble MR. Satya Kumar viewed him as a serious threat, and felt utterly #incompetent before him as the officer possessed a PhD in the domain subject from a world renowned university. Instead of rewarding him, his life was made so miserable that he had to leave CRIS thoroughly disillusioned with the prevailing state of affairs.
The deputationist officers who remain in the DA group are no minions either, with both also being PhDs, and both are being treated with equal disregard by the real minion Satya Kumar. The treatment meted out to CPEs of Network and Cloud Groups, outstanding officers of their domain, follow a similar pattern. Both were divested of their primary responsibilities as soon as it became apparent to Satya Kumar that Board officers preferred to communicate with these officers rather than him.
The handling of the #FOIS group has been the icing in the cake. That Satya Kumar cannot stand Director/Operations is well known in the organisation, because he is the one to call a spade a spade, possesses well recognised outstanding administrative skills, and does not back down when the need arises to take a stand directly contrary to Satya Kumar.
This is professional hara-kiri with an insecure and incompetent boss like Satya Kumar, which has resulted in the somewhat comical and somewhat paradoxical situation of the Operations portfolio being removed from Director/Operations and being assigned to, you guessed it right, #SatyaKumar’s partner in crime #RajeshAbrol. But when #IRTS stands totally compromised, what more can one expect?
Conclusion
CRIS presents a sorry state of affairs today, with an incompetent megalomaniac at the head. The sooner #SatyaKumar and his crony #RajeshAbrol are removed from CRIS, the better it will be for the organisation. Hon’ble MR needs to investigate the claims made by the #whistleblower, especially on appointment of consultants, frequent transfers. CRIS needs a thorough overhaul to say the least. Interview the officers who had to leave and know why they left. Officers like DA expert are assets of Indian Railways.