Southern Railway fiasco in Bed Sheets

Admin

Bedsheets purchase: A big scam going on in Southern Railway

Issuing modification advices by amending inspection clause is itself a fraud

In the history of Railway Procurement Procedures (#RPP) of #Bedsheets till date no one is granted 6 #Modification Advice, #Visual Inspection or Amendment in TPI Agency as it is in this case

Stores Officers of Southern Railway have utilised the instrument of urgency in increasing their own wealth rather than giving common passengers the benefit of comfort

#Regarding: Providing Relaxations in Inspection Clause at Unspecified Place of Inspection to the supplier (M/s Uttam Udyog, Mumbai) to ensure substandard supplies

#Reference: #IREPS order no. 06224309101204, dated April 17, 2023, for supply of Mill Made Bedsheets by M/s Uttam Udyog, Mumbai to the PCMM Office, Southern Railway, Headquarters, Chennai

Bedsheets Mill Made are procured only if handloom #Bedsheets supply fails, but #SouthernRailway have utilised this instrument of urgency in increasing their own wealth rather than giving common #Passengers the benefit of comfort. Accountability should be fixed against #corrupt Railway officers concerned, else this magnitude of loss #Railways can never occur.

Open #Tender was issued under No. 06224309C opened on 18.01.2023 with Inspection by #RITES for a quantity of 522715 Nos. of bedsheets valuing ₹9.14 Crores. Order was placed on M/s #UttamUdyog-Mumbai for 418171 Nos. on 17.04.2023 with end supply by 31.08.2023 with value of order ₹7,31,19,917.46/-.

This #firm are possessing #MSME Certificate with an add-on #address of a small #Flat at #Erode in Tamil Nadu, which is a hub for textile mills.

This firm is just a #trader, who procures cheap quality materials and by way of twisting the #inspection to #Textile Committee instead of #RITES, sub-standard materials are delivered, which increases the wealth and bank balance of officers directly dealing this purchase and the common man loses his comfort.

If any query is made to #RailwayBoard #Vigilance, it can be ascertained from them how this firm had forged the tender specific authorizations of some reputed #brands for securing purchase orders (#PO) worth in Crores of Rupees for #RainCoats and #Trackman’s luminous #Jackets from #SER’s tenders done by #Adra and #Kharagpur Divisions in 2019, where investigation is still going on by Railway Board.

It is a common knowledge that once a #delivery date expires and lower rates is received against subsequent tenders, the defaulting firm must accept the lower rate invariably.

Realising the lower rates, #PCMM Office refixed the #delivery date for delivery dates from 31.08.2023 to 14.10.2023 i.e., without imposing any loss or levying lower rates and from 14.10.2023 till 31.12.2023 another Modification Advice (#MA) was issued with Liquidated Damages (#LD).

Thus, LD in total would be 4.5% of the #value of the un-supplied #quantity rather than flat 10% full LD.

The net loss to Railways in issue of illegal modification advices bypassing the #rates of the current tender opened on 29.09.2023 is anywhere around ₹50 lakh to ₹55 Lakh.

Also, #PCMM – has issued #modification advice amending the inspection clause from tendered RITES to Textile Mill to further #SITRA, which is highly illegal.

If the materials are tested by independently from any #NABL laboratory, the materials will surely fail in some specified parameters like ends and picks, scoring loss to name a few.

It is now up to #CVC to investigate this matter and recover public money and book corrupt Railway offcials, since Southern Railway have drained out Crores of rupees in allowing sops to M/s Uttam Udyog by way of re-fixing delivery date without imposition of LD, abrupt change in inspection clause etc. To continue..