Who is giving protection from the top to signalling contractors to loot the Railways? Part-3
Anti-competition federalism led by Northern Railway crushing PMO’s vision of competition in India for growth
It took #Railwhispers some time to do a detailed investigation to verify the facts and gather the evidence.
CORRUPTION #1:
PCSTE/Northern Railway under instruction from CVO/NR who – as per reliable sources – has taken huge bribes from a Cartel of Signalling Contractors to float very high value tenders and make the tender conditions and requirements in such a manner so that only 2-3 out of many contractors qualify in the bidding.
Apparently, it is known subject of discussion in the corridors of Zonal Railways and Rail Bhawan that CVO/NR has engaged a Kolkata based big signalling contractor for collecting ‘election fund’ by misusing the name of Hon’ble Minister for Railways (MR) and the Minister of State for Railways (MoSR-D). It is important that these ministers sanitise their advisors and their respective cells.
Their Signalling contractor lobby is forced to pay huge amounts in the name of protection money else they would be penalized as informed by the source who is also a Hyderabad based signalling contractor.
In fact, it was informed that since Jaipur based signalling firm refused to contribute, he was trapped by the agency. So the deal is pay up or land up black listed or jailed.
EVENT-1: IRCON floats S&T EPC Tender and awards another Kolkata based signalling firm for 265 crores.
EVENT-2: A most corrupt senior officer of the IRCON International Ltd. who has been retired even in suspension period.
EVENT-3: Northern Railway floats two high value tenders respectively for the same S&T work and Moradabad Division through Works department themselves with qualification criteria that only 2-3 big contractors qualify. This is the biggest value Works tender by any railway, and it can be the biggest fraud or manipulation too?
The following technical eligibility criteria proves there are hardly 2-3 selected bidders for such high value Works tenders:
#Railwhispers appeals Hon’ble Minister for Railways:
1. Kindly get investigate why these high value tenders have been floated through Works tender and not through EPC with such strict qualification criteria. The same tender with high value through EPC will attract more competition as many bidders can participate.
2. These tenders should be immediately cancelled and refloated with lower value Stores items where maximum tenderers can bid.
3. Stores items like MSDAC, IPS, LED SIGNALS which brought 100% saving through Stores to be taken out from these Works tenders and floated through Stores so that there is effective competition with participation from OEMs not Traders and maximum cost benefit is derived by Railways. This will ensure participation by OEMs who otherwise cannot participate in Works tenders. Railways will end up losing a huge amount due to purchase of these items through Works than Stores. Recently, Northern Railway itself has awarded orders for these items through Stores after intensive Reverse Auction (RA), negotiation and price were 1/3rd compared to old Works prices of these items. Hence, Northern Railway should immediately remove/separate these items from this Works tender which automatically reduce the tender value as well as ensure more competition and lower prices through Stores.
4. Posting of PCSTE/NR and CVO/NR must be investigated and they should be removed from service against 56J for cheating Railways and favouring Cartels of Signalling Contractors. Investigation will reveal how they have manipulated the system to float such high value tenders to help particular contractors. Video footage available show the regular meetings between CVO/NR and signalling contractors.
5. Competition Commission of India (#CCI) should also investigate who will remain the eligible bidders for these tenders and how they got this tender floated to restrict competition.
CORRUPTION #2:
Northern Railway awards following Works contract at 6% above to some contractor. Tender doesn’t have Reverse Auction.
Now, Northern Railway floats another tender for similar works at Lucknow division and after Reverse Auction, same Firm reduced price by 3% and other firms reduce price by 15%.
Who will bear the cost of losses made due to ordering at higher prices to the same firm without Reverse Auction?
The corruption is as follows:
Where in tender this particular contractor had interest, there was no Reverse Auction and later where he had no interest Reverse Auction was done to get a better price. The order of this firm should be immediately cancelled and PCSTE/NR be held responsible and removed from office for such favour and open corruption.
CORRUPTION #3:
As per information received and verified from many Railway Signalling Officers, there is an ex-RDSO officer namely Akhilesh Yadav, presently working with M/s Frauscher who has been actively feeding information about other systems and files to RDSO, Railway Board and CVC technical examiners. It is also heard that he claims access to Hon’ble MoSR-D and OSD to MoSR-D as well as MR Cell. He is thoroughly misusing information as he is terribly losing money as follows.
1. M/s Frauscher obtained an MSDAC order from a contractor at Rs. 2,40,000/-.
2. The contractor sells the same MSDAC to railway at Rs. 7,40,000/-.
3. Mr Akhilesh Yadav charges contractor Rs. 100000 per DP as commission so that contractors can get low rates from OEM and earn huge profits.
4. Hence, Mr Akhilesh yadav with contractor cartel is using his former relation with Railways’ signalling officers and new found power and influence by bribing pockets of his ex-colleagues and managed to get policy changed of MSDAC to be purchased from Works rather than Stores where Frauscher would have to quote directly and contractor would not pay him. Also, with prices through Stores coming down 1/3rd, there was no chance of any commission from contractors.
5. CVC, CBI, ED, Lokpal, CCI, MR, CRB, PED/Vigilance should neutrally investigate and it will be realized that he is a key player behind this 1500 crore scam.
The evidence is here-
It is very shocking that documentary facts reveal that this OEM does not quote direct in Stores tenders but only to corrupt signalling contractors and that also a price much lower than Stores price and the contractor further quotes and gets Works order at three times the price at which it bought from this OEM.
Are the foreign principals of this OEM and Indian Railways Signalling officers aware of this corruption? Why are signalling officers who are awarding such high prices to signalling contractors through Works contract ignoring the purchase price of these signalling contractors when evidence is available?
If #Railwhispers obtained evidence then we are sure the task is much simpler for the Railway official.
All investigating agencies have put such corrupt private employees under scanners to nab their illegal income and prevent money laundering.
Ironically, even repeated requests and inputs by the #Railwhispers, no one is interested in saving the huge money on account of policy change of purchase of MSDAC through Stores which had also led to increase in vendor base, healthy competition and reduced cost of the system.
#Railwhispers is very much concerned how the parliamentarians will react to such shame and request Hon’ble Minister for Railways to kindly get an independent and unbiased investigation done, and not be influenced by his political motivated advisors who are blemishing the name of Railways for their vested interest. Also, they need to issue disclaimers like that issued in the past by MRs that if their name is used by any one it should be verified with MR Cell and the contact number should be publicised.
All news reports of #Railwhispers, comprising details of our internal investigation and source information are being justified by the continuous raids by investigating agencies on S&T officials and contractors who have caused such extreme corruption. Why are Hon’bles on top waiting for more external investigations when an internal neutral investigation will prove all our facts? To continue..