Friday, March 16, 2012
India pays back 'India's Most Wanted' and how!
Icons who supplement sense of belonging towards a society, are hailed instantly as heroes. Such icons are 'most wanted' and sought-after in our society. At the same time, the ones who are bestowed with fame in the process, are also pulled down cruelly at the slightest hint of vulnerability. How would a man, who has helped in netting dreaded absconding criminals be made to feel? He would definitely be treated with utmost respect in any other society, but seemingly not so, in unfortunate India. My statement can be termed as gross cynicism, may be until I present an example.
Suhaib Ilyasi, pioneer of reality television show in India and anchor of first crime based program, 'India's Most Wanted' risked his career for a program listing 'wanted' criminals of various jurisdictions of India. Of course, it was a commercial venture and as commercial as the koo-chi-koo romantic programs or sitcoms that were crowding the television schedules. But instead of laughing his way to the bank by showing make-believe stories, he chose to utilise the reach of television to help fight crime plaguing the society. It requires guts to face death threats but persist with something one is passionate about. India's Most Wanted helped to nab 135 fugitives. The service he did to the nation is unmatched even to this date. Yet, after such a huge contribution, he is today remembered with suspicion, all due to the verdict of being held 'guilty until proven innocent' by kangaroo courts of media houses.
Suhaib's wife Anju committed suicide on January 10, 2000 by stabbing herself to death. Three months after the incident, he was arrested for a dowry demand of Rs.10000 He was charged under Sec-498a and Sec-304B of IPC. Sec-304B considers any unnatural death of a wife within 7 years of marriage as dowry death. The sub-divisional Magistrate in his report indicated that Anju's injuries were self-inflicted and suicidal in nature. But media had already declared him as a murderer. I remember, reading reports and 'analysis' in newspapers, of 'how staying in touch with crime news can turn one's thought process also criminal'.
When one understand the facts of the cases, it comes across that it was not only that he was charged after nearly 3 months of his wife's death, but also dowry claim was a ridiculous Rs. 10000. The fight was all about the custody of his daughter. A day after the suicide, his in-laws had rejected possibility of foul play and admitted of Anju, his wife, being short-tempered. But two months later, his sister-in-law Rashmi filed the cases after he refused to give custody of his child to her. Not only that, it was his brother-in-law and father-in-law who contested the allegations charged! He was later charged with murder as well and also got acquitted. This is a clear open-and-shut case of misuse of laws.
It seemed that Suhaib during the course of his shows had stepped on toes of some politicians and the politician-mafia nexus had did him in. India which had benefited from his service should have rallied behind him, but we as a society failed him with our silence.
Suhaib embraced oblivion. The wounds that his soul has nursed can be imagined when he describes himself, first as a 'father', then everything else. He is now Editor-in-Chief at 'Bureaucracy Today'. Continuing his streak of exposing crime, his team of reporters Shalini Singh and Vandana Vasudevan busted the nexus of Kingfisher Airlines and HPCL officials which unfairly favoured the airlines incurring hefty losses to the state-unit.
They were helped by another whistle-blower Mr. Ravi Srivastava who was hounded out, by unscrupulous corrupt people from HPCL. He was also an activist with the Anna Andolan and volunteered at Navi Mumbai Chapter of India Against Corruption. This expose has nearly brought down the KingFisher Airlines.
Fighting prickly depression and sense of persecution, Suhaib has still kept his pledge with the nation intact and still wants to impact the society positively. He is now bringing in a movie '498a - The Wedding Gift' that highlights the misuse of the dowry laws in India. This time India has a chance to correct its mistake and reward him by making this film successful.
The onus is truly on you and me to embrace him or continue to hound him. Lets see, how India pays back for the services of its 'most wanted' son.
https://www.facebook.com/498aWeddingGift
Posted by Amit Deshpande at 1:05 AM
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Ashok Singh declares war on S. Roy Choudhury
http://petroleumdealers.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/ashok-singh-declares-war-on-s-roy-choudhury-of-hpcl/#comment-1085
Supreme Court said corrupt should be hanged at Lamp Post.
S Roy Choudhury with his predecessor Arun Balakrishnan deserve it.
At the earliest
On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 3:27 PM, ravi srivastava wrote:
Ashok Singh declares war on S. Roy Choudhury
Vol 15, PW 10 (17 Nov 2011) - Politics & People
Hindustan Petroleum chairman S. Roy Choudhury has promised to fight a series of damaging allegations soon to be laid bare in the Delhi High Court. Ashok Singh, a former HPCL officer and labour union official, plans to file a petition claiming the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) fraudulently cleared Choudhury’s appointment as company chairman in 2010. “The CVC didn’t stop Choudhury from taking charge in August 2010,” Singh tells PETROWATCH. “But my complaint against him is pending since November 11, 2009.” Two months ago Singh invoked the Right to Information Act to discover his complaint against Choudhury is gathering dust at the CVC. Provoked, he hired a team of top lawyers, and is trying to hire former solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam also. A draft petition, seen by this report, alleges impropriety when Choudhury was HPCL executive director and later director marketing. Singh alleges that in May 2009 Choudhury allowed a generous 75 day credit period to privately-owned GMR for diesel delivered to its 200-MW Vasavi Basin Bridge power station in Chennai. “On the one hand HPCL is borrowing from the market,” reads the draft petition. “On the other it has given credit to GMR.” Worse, Singh alleges GMR wrongly told power purchaser Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) it was allowed only five days credit by HPCL. “TNEB is a government enterprise and was deprived of 70 days additional credit,” he adds. Also under scrutiny is Choudhury’s appointment of ICICI Bank in 2003 without tender to operate a customer loyalty programme for diesel sales from HPCL pumps. And finally, when others were ignoring Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya, Choudhury inexplicably raised the cash-strapped stricken airline’s credit limit from Rs300cr ($60m) to Rs605cr ($121m). “These charges are an act of desperation from a man (Singh) who was dismissed from HPCL,” Choudhury tells this report. “If they come to court I will fight them.”
NOTE: Ashok Singh alleges that another watchdog body, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), asked HPCL in May 2009 to explain the “undue favour” to GMR Vasavi but that Choudhury’s appointment as company chairman went through nonetheless. Singh also asks how Choudhury could have approved a marketing partnership with ICICI Bank when diesel fuel sales are subsidised by the government. ICICI, he says, earned Rs165cr ($33m) as a result. “HPCL is a public sector undertaking but out of the revenues earned on sale of these (government-subsidised) products it has agreed to share the revenue with a private bank without any public interest,” he says. Singh, 53, is the son-in-law of former Congress Party MP Rana Veer Singh. As HPCL regional manager and president of the Oil Sector Officers’ Association, he was dismissed in March 2009 after the government broke a strike by oil sector officers two months earlier. A lawyer by training, Singh has taken up farming in the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh since his dismissal from HPCL.
--
R. P. Srivastava
304, AUM SAI Sector-7
Kharghar, Navi Mumbai 410210
Mob. 09820183924 L/L 02227744012
FB Ravi Srivastava
blog http://raviprakash4354.blogspot.com
Twitter ravi4354,Linkedin ravi4354,GTalk ravi4354
RTI Activist &India Against corruption Coordinator Navi Mumbai
Supreme Court said corrupt should be hanged at Lamp Post.
S Roy Choudhury with his predecessor Arun Balakrishnan deserve it.
At the earliest
On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 3:27 PM, ravi srivastava
Ashok Singh declares war on S. Roy Choudhury
Vol 15, PW 10 (17 Nov 2011) - Politics & People
Hindustan Petroleum chairman S. Roy Choudhury has promised to fight a series of damaging allegations soon to be laid bare in the Delhi High Court. Ashok Singh, a former HPCL officer and labour union official, plans to file a petition claiming the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) fraudulently cleared Choudhury’s appointment as company chairman in 2010. “The CVC didn’t stop Choudhury from taking charge in August 2010,” Singh tells PETROWATCH. “But my complaint against him is pending since November 11, 2009.” Two months ago Singh invoked the Right to Information Act to discover his complaint against Choudhury is gathering dust at the CVC. Provoked, he hired a team of top lawyers, and is trying to hire former solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam also. A draft petition, seen by this report, alleges impropriety when Choudhury was HPCL executive director and later director marketing. Singh alleges that in May 2009 Choudhury allowed a generous 75 day credit period to privately-owned GMR for diesel delivered to its 200-MW Vasavi Basin Bridge power station in Chennai. “On the one hand HPCL is borrowing from the market,” reads the draft petition. “On the other it has given credit to GMR.” Worse, Singh alleges GMR wrongly told power purchaser Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) it was allowed only five days credit by HPCL. “TNEB is a government enterprise and was deprived of 70 days additional credit,” he adds. Also under scrutiny is Choudhury’s appointment of ICICI Bank in 2003 without tender to operate a customer loyalty programme for diesel sales from HPCL pumps. And finally, when others were ignoring Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya, Choudhury inexplicably raised the cash-strapped stricken airline’s credit limit from Rs300cr ($60m) to Rs605cr ($121m). “These charges are an act of desperation from a man (Singh) who was dismissed from HPCL,” Choudhury tells this report. “If they come to court I will fight them.”
NOTE: Ashok Singh alleges that another watchdog body, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), asked HPCL in May 2009 to explain the “undue favour” to GMR Vasavi but that Choudhury’s appointment as company chairman went through nonetheless. Singh also asks how Choudhury could have approved a marketing partnership with ICICI Bank when diesel fuel sales are subsidised by the government. ICICI, he says, earned Rs165cr ($33m) as a result. “HPCL is a public sector undertaking but out of the revenues earned on sale of these (government-subsidised) products it has agreed to share the revenue with a private bank without any public interest,” he says. Singh, 53, is the son-in-law of former Congress Party MP Rana Veer Singh. As HPCL regional manager and president of the Oil Sector Officers’ Association, he was dismissed in March 2009 after the government broke a strike by oil sector officers two months earlier. A lawyer by training, Singh has taken up farming in the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh since his dismissal from HPCL.
--
R. P. Srivastava
304, AUM SAI Sector-7
Kharghar, Navi Mumbai 410210
Mob. 09820183924 L/L 02227744012
FB Ravi Srivastava
blog http://raviprakash4354.blogspot.com
Twitter ravi4354,Linkedin ravi4354,GTalk ravi4354
RTI Activist &India Against corruption Coordinator Navi Mumbai
Petro Prcing :A Big Farce
"Articles By Whistleblower & Activist Ravi Srivastava on oil industry and issues which give us the hidden harsh
reality and force us to think more than just normal . We are thankful to him for sharing his articles with us .
Please Share Articles and be part of his fight against corruption."EasytoAct(ETA)
Petro pricing has been a matter of debate for decades there is no transparency in Refining costs, Taxes,
Duties, Margins, cess and other levies the fact is Govt. never intended to make it open for public scrutiny,
a figure of several lakh crores is flashed on TV screens with every price increase, where a few thousand crores
are absorbed by Govt., upstream oil companies and balance is passed on to market to squeeze the defenseless
consumer.Government budgets certain amount recoverable from Public towards Taxes&Duties and the subsidy
is actually the “loss in Profit” by Govt., with every price increase the State Governments , octroi , cess for
Municipalities, Dealer’s commission every one takes his pound of flesh in this official loot.
Murli Deora then Petroleum Minister, 3 years before in a Press conference proudly holding a Bisleri bottle in his
hand says ‘We are selling Kerosene even cheaper then this mineral water “what he did not explain, that whose
money he was draining down the drain , it was our’s, taxpayers hard earned money doled out in the name of
subsidy for below poverty line poor ,who seldom get it.
Petro pricing has been a matter of debate for decades there is no transparency in Refining costs, Taxes, Duties, Margins, cess and other levies the fact is Govt. never intended to make it open for public scrutiny, a figure of several lakh crores is flashed on TV screens with every price increase, where a few thousand crores are absorbed by Govt., upstream oil companies and balance is passed on to market to squeeze the defenseless consumer.Government budgets certain amount recoverable from Public towards Taxes&Duties and the subsidy is actually the “loss in Profit” by Govt., with every price increase the State Governments , octroi , cess for Municipalities, Dealer’s commission every one takes his pound of flesh in this official loot.
Genesis of fuel pricing shows that sometimes in the late eighties while fuel consumption was approx. 55Mt , ONGC, OIL were producing roughly half of country’s requirement , shockingly even after 25 years and sinking few Lakh crores of Rupees crude oil production of ONGC has not exceeded even by 1 Mt andremains stagnant at 27 Mt , resulting into Nation’s50% dependence on imported crude has reduced to 22% and 78% of the crude is imported today eating into precious foreign exchange due to ever volatile Dollar .Nation faces a “crude shock” every passing fortnight for the inefficiency on the part ONGC and policy bankruptcy of Shastri Bhawan Babus .ONGC is projected as a cash rich behemoth and Maharatna courtesy compensation to the company on rising dollars.OIL is smaller culprit who could muster a moderate growth in their production due to smaller base.
As late as in 1998 Govt. used to compensate OMC’s(Oil Marketing Companies) ,a 12% post tax return and fuel prices were fixed by Govt.NDA rule dared to bring much touted deregulation, which gave pricing leverage on paper to OMC’s and physically remained with Minister &Ministry ,Pricing of Lubricant , ATF(Aviation Turbine Fuel), Black oils were left to OMC’s ,who by and large cartelized and insulated themselves from competition, Private players preferred export instead of selling locally due to pricing disadvantage.They did open couple of thousand outlets which eventually closed down . Petrol, diesel, LPG and Kerosene were kept under MDPM(Market determined price mechanism) which remained same except the word “Market” replaced by ‘Minister’or ‘Ministry”.
In fact total pricing freedom to OMC’s in letter &spirit would have diluted the authority of Politicians/Babus of MOP&NG and therefore every increase /reduction in these 4 products have to be blessed by Ministry, who will have privilege to announce it first on camera. OMC’s are used as a fiefdom or a milch cow of Ministry for various services/facilities, favors like provision of Taxies for personal use of babus and their families , organizing trips to exotic locations, use of Guest houses at Major cities , appointing consultants and cut in contracts.In turn ministry protects corrupt Oil company officials from CVC,CBI&CAG .
OMC’s are plagued by 3 serious ailments, Inefficiency, corruption and Bad debts/ wasteful expenditures, OMC’s practically everyday make a hue &cry for under recoveries, fact is they are grossly inefficient ,take the example of Project Management/Capital expenditure .HPCL planned agreen field Refinery at Bhatinda after laying foundation stone 3 times twice by NDA Govt.and once by UPAI, finally the work commenced in 2008, even after missing 2 deadlines and 13 years Refinery is still not on stream , in fact HPCL now has no money to by the Crude .The Project cost escalated 4 times since original DFR(detailed feasibility Report).IOC raising a coastal Refinery at Paradeep for last 7 years with no where completion in sight .Refinery margins are another grey area with oil companies e.g HPCL having a GRM(Gross refining Margin) of barely 30 cents in last quarter from their recently upgraded Vizag Refinery with thousands of crores of capex. OMC’s boast of high turnover and financials which is courtesy increased fuel prices, volume sales have barely registered a growth of average 3.5% y-o-y in last two 5 year plans. The worst part is that despite under recoveries in all 4 products which are consumed by masses and having complete monopoly , OMC’s resort to competition with each other and undercutting which is totally unfair, unethical and undesirable ,since they are compensated by Taxpayers money/National exchequer. OMC’s offer discounts to ICICI, HDFC, CITIBANK, RAILWAYS, DEFENCE which has no logic or reasoning .In existing scenario where “more you sell more you loose” they should resort to “Demand management” and encourage fuel conservation.
Govt. cunningly deregulated the price of Petrol in july 2010 and gave a free hand to OMC’s to raise the prices on one pretext or the other, like crude prices gone up, Rupee weakened vis-a-vis USD or compensating loss on sales of Kerosene, while facts are contrary, In june 2008 when crude hit highest price of 147USD per barrel Petrol was selling for Rs. 51/ltr and now when crude is 110 USD per barrel Petrol is being sold Rs. 75 /ltr. OMC’s misused this leverage continuously for 13 times and finally succumbed to Public/political outcry in the 1st weak of Nov. 2011 to 1stdownward correction of Rs.2,25/ltr. The logistic model of OMC’s is not cost effective and results into cris cross movement of Product .Few years before they tried to sell grocery to Textile at their Retail outlets which flopped miserably. Attempts like HPCL running Retail outlets in Mauritius, and IOC’s operation in Zimbabwe, SriLanka did not add to their bottom line either .The myth that Petrol is rich &effluent class fuel is unfounded , it is consumed by a vast population of Bikers/2 wheelers middle/lower middle class consumers , rich have already switched over to Diesel guzzling SUV’s.
Corruption is rampant in Oil PSU’s and the money is channeled from Sales officer to the Chairman for buying lucrative positions like Regional Manager, General Manger (zones) which are auctioned. There are quite a few avenues for generation of money Viz. Reconstitution of Retail outlets, De-leasing the land of Retail outlets, Adulteration Etc. According to survey more then 70% Retail outlets/Gas agencies have Minister, MP, MLA or corporaters either in ownership or as sleeping partner, bribes are paid for allotment of such outlets/agencies, which are recovered by adulteration or selling Domestic cylinders in black to unauthorized consumers .NCEAR(National Council of Economic& applied Research) have established in their study that 38% of PDS Kerosene is siphoned off for adulteration which is Rs.15000 cr. industry Nation wide(e.g Malegaoncase). Price of Petrol Rs. 72/ltr and Diesel 45/ltr mixed with Kerosene of Rs.13/ltr is a lucrative trade and money generated through this clandestine route is channeled up to Minister/Ministry .Govt. made no sincere attempt to curb adulteration till date except blue dying Kerosene in late Eighties and a recently launched Marker , which proved to be another fraud in CBI enquiry where Marker was purchased for Rs. 13000/ltr from a blacklisted British company Named BIOCODE .Marker was abruptly abandoned in 2008 after the CBI complaint and draining of Rs. 200 cr of Public money and could not be restarted even after 3 years, despite several announcements by Ministers .
Land de-leasing is another oily business HPCL/BPCL inherited large No. of Retail outlets of foreign oil companies like ESSO/CALTEX/BURMA SHELL having land prices fairly low at the time of acquisition however now prices have appreciated multi fold and de leasing the Retail outlet land fetches crores of rupees for owners, ever greedy oil company officials, Politicians fix the deal and company executes it quoting as a “VIP Reference”. Appointment of consultants and Advisors is another source of corruption, within couple months of officer attaining superannuation , he is appointed as Advisor/consultant at hefty compensation with a cut for Top company officials .HPCL alone has at least 20 such retired officers back on their rolls .Appointing foreign consultants like, Gallup, Thomson Associates, Mercer, Arthur D’little, Accenture in the name of improving productivity, Performance evaluation and boosting employee morale have failed in their objective and proved to be employment avenues for the wards of working &retired company & Ministry officials.
Bad debts and infructuous expenditure are another drain on OMCs profits ,IOC has on date Rs1800 cr in principal and 400 cr in interest outstanding fro NACIL, HPCL has Rs. 703 cr.due from beleaguered Kingfisher they claim to have a Bank Guarantee for Rs.300 cr but moot question is whether Bank will honor a Bank Guarantee to a 3rd party or settle their own dues first.IOC has Rs50 cr due from GSRTC for last 14 years. HPCL has sunk approx. 17 cr in a wound up airline Modiluft and a few crores in recent defunct Paramount Airways. The worst part is the chairmen of these companies defend and justify their decisions stating these are calculated risks. There is a popular Joke of 10 oil company officers launching a Oil conservation week each traveling alone in his car, numerous example of wasteful expenditure by OMC’s, recently BPCL spent Rs. 40 Lakhs of taxpayers money for fond farewell of one of their Director and HPCL spending Rs. 19 cr. from their Delhicoordination office on Shastri Bhawan Babus and Parliamentarians for gifting them Novelties , Mementos
The chairmen of oil companies are treated like dirt by Shastri Bhawan Babus , recently IOC/HPCL CMD’s made some statement on increasing Petrol price, they do not realize how soon they will have to eat their words. The solution lies in making Petro pricing transparent and the farce of “Import parity” should be abolished, state taxes rationalized with GST , Kerosene should be market priced and any subsidy can be paid in cash/Bank Account through smart card/Aadhar cards. Black of Domestic cylinders being sold as Non domestic must be stopped forth with , use of Domestic cylinders be limited for households. A rational price mechanism for Petrol& Diesel would provide a much awaited relief to a common man.
.Deora has been shown the door from Petroleum Ministry and Cabinet, all his cronies have been shunted to non descript assignments. Ministry ,instead of working for Ambanies, Ruias, for which CAG has already submitted a scathing report and action will be taken in due course of time, should concentrate on enhancing production of crude oil which is a long term solution ,OMC s should be pulled up to tighten their belts instead of finding excuses.
Ravi Srivastava
"To Know his battle against false Please Follow Tale of Two Whistleblower of HPCL"
Previous Articles : CORRUPTION WATCHDOG 3 C’s , COINCIDANCES, TOO MANY , THE MARK(ER) OF A SCAM-RS.200 cr. FRAUD BY MOP&NG , PUBLIC FUNDING OF A PRIVATE AIRLINE
reality and force us to think more than just normal . We are thankful to him for sharing his articles with us .
Please Share Articles and be part of his fight against corruption."EasytoAct(ETA)
Petro pricing has been a matter of debate for decades there is no transparency in Refining costs, Taxes,
Duties, Margins, cess and other levies the fact is Govt. never intended to make it open for public scrutiny,
a figure of several lakh crores is flashed on TV screens with every price increase, where a few thousand crores
are absorbed by Govt., upstream oil companies and balance is passed on to market to squeeze the defenseless
consumer.Government budgets certain amount recoverable from Public towards Taxes&Duties and the subsidy
is actually the “loss in Profit” by Govt., with every price increase the State Governments , octroi , cess for
Municipalities, Dealer’s commission every one takes his pound of flesh in this official loot.
Murli Deora then Petroleum Minister, 3 years before in a Press conference proudly holding a Bisleri bottle in his
hand says ‘We are selling Kerosene even cheaper then this mineral water “what he did not explain, that whose
money he was draining down the drain , it was our’s, taxpayers hard earned money doled out in the name of
subsidy for below poverty line poor ,who seldom get it.
Petro pricing has been a matter of debate for decades there is no transparency in Refining costs, Taxes, Duties, Margins, cess and other levies the fact is Govt. never intended to make it open for public scrutiny, a figure of several lakh crores is flashed on TV screens with every price increase, where a few thousand crores are absorbed by Govt., upstream oil companies and balance is passed on to market to squeeze the defenseless consumer.Government budgets certain amount recoverable from Public towards Taxes&Duties and the subsidy is actually the “loss in Profit” by Govt., with every price increase the State Governments , octroi , cess for Municipalities, Dealer’s commission every one takes his pound of flesh in this official loot.
Genesis of fuel pricing shows that sometimes in the late eighties while fuel consumption was approx. 55Mt , ONGC, OIL were producing roughly half of country’s requirement , shockingly even after 25 years and sinking few Lakh crores of Rupees crude oil production of ONGC has not exceeded even by 1 Mt andremains stagnant at 27 Mt , resulting into Nation’s50% dependence on imported crude has reduced to 22% and 78% of the crude is imported today eating into precious foreign exchange due to ever volatile Dollar .Nation faces a “crude shock” every passing fortnight for the inefficiency on the part ONGC and policy bankruptcy of Shastri Bhawan Babus .ONGC is projected as a cash rich behemoth and Maharatna courtesy compensation to the company on rising dollars.OIL is smaller culprit who could muster a moderate growth in their production due to smaller base.
As late as in 1998 Govt. used to compensate OMC’s(Oil Marketing Companies) ,a 12% post tax return and fuel prices were fixed by Govt.NDA rule dared to bring much touted deregulation, which gave pricing leverage on paper to OMC’s and physically remained with Minister &Ministry ,Pricing of Lubricant , ATF(Aviation Turbine Fuel), Black oils were left to OMC’s ,who by and large cartelized and insulated themselves from competition, Private players preferred export instead of selling locally due to pricing disadvantage.They did open couple of thousand outlets which eventually closed down . Petrol, diesel, LPG and Kerosene were kept under MDPM(Market determined price mechanism) which remained same except the word “Market” replaced by ‘Minister’or ‘Ministry”.
In fact total pricing freedom to OMC’s in letter &spirit would have diluted the authority of Politicians/Babus of MOP&NG and therefore every increase /reduction in these 4 products have to be blessed by Ministry, who will have privilege to announce it first on camera. OMC’s are used as a fiefdom or a milch cow of Ministry for various services/facilities, favors like provision of Taxies for personal use of babus and their families , organizing trips to exotic locations, use of Guest houses at Major cities , appointing consultants and cut in contracts.In turn ministry protects corrupt Oil company officials from CVC,CBI&CAG .
OMC’s are plagued by 3 serious ailments, Inefficiency, corruption and Bad debts/ wasteful expenditures, OMC’s practically everyday make a hue &cry for under recoveries, fact is they are grossly inefficient ,take the example of Project Management/Capital expenditure .HPCL planned agreen field Refinery at Bhatinda after laying foundation stone 3 times twice by NDA Govt.and once by UPAI, finally the work commenced in 2008, even after missing 2 deadlines and 13 years Refinery is still not on stream , in fact HPCL now has no money to by the Crude .The Project cost escalated 4 times since original DFR(detailed feasibility Report).IOC raising a coastal Refinery at Paradeep for last 7 years with no where completion in sight .Refinery margins are another grey area with oil companies e.g HPCL having a GRM(Gross refining Margin) of barely 30 cents in last quarter from their recently upgraded Vizag Refinery with thousands of crores of capex. OMC’s boast of high turnover and financials which is courtesy increased fuel prices, volume sales have barely registered a growth of average 3.5% y-o-y in last two 5 year plans. The worst part is that despite under recoveries in all 4 products which are consumed by masses and having complete monopoly , OMC’s resort to competition with each other and undercutting which is totally unfair, unethical and undesirable ,since they are compensated by Taxpayers money/National exchequer. OMC’s offer discounts to ICICI, HDFC, CITIBANK, RAILWAYS, DEFENCE which has no logic or reasoning .In existing scenario where “more you sell more you loose” they should resort to “Demand management” and encourage fuel conservation.
Govt. cunningly deregulated the price of Petrol in july 2010 and gave a free hand to OMC’s to raise the prices on one pretext or the other, like crude prices gone up, Rupee weakened vis-a-vis USD or compensating loss on sales of Kerosene, while facts are contrary, In june 2008 when crude hit highest price of 147USD per barrel Petrol was selling for Rs. 51/ltr and now when crude is 110 USD per barrel Petrol is being sold Rs. 75 /ltr. OMC’s misused this leverage continuously for 13 times and finally succumbed to Public/political outcry in the 1st weak of Nov. 2011 to 1stdownward correction of Rs.2,25/ltr. The logistic model of OMC’s is not cost effective and results into cris cross movement of Product .Few years before they tried to sell grocery to Textile at their Retail outlets which flopped miserably. Attempts like HPCL running Retail outlets in Mauritius, and IOC’s operation in Zimbabwe, SriLanka did not add to their bottom line either .The myth that Petrol is rich &effluent class fuel is unfounded , it is consumed by a vast population of Bikers/2 wheelers middle/lower middle class consumers , rich have already switched over to Diesel guzzling SUV’s.
Corruption is rampant in Oil PSU’s and the money is channeled from Sales officer to the Chairman for buying lucrative positions like Regional Manager, General Manger (zones) which are auctioned. There are quite a few avenues for generation of money Viz. Reconstitution of Retail outlets, De-leasing the land of Retail outlets, Adulteration Etc. According to survey more then 70% Retail outlets/Gas agencies have Minister, MP, MLA or corporaters either in ownership or as sleeping partner, bribes are paid for allotment of such outlets/agencies, which are recovered by adulteration or selling Domestic cylinders in black to unauthorized consumers .NCEAR(National Council of Economic& applied Research) have established in their study that 38% of PDS Kerosene is siphoned off for adulteration which is Rs.15000 cr. industry Nation wide(e.g Malegaoncase). Price of Petrol Rs. 72/ltr and Diesel 45/ltr mixed with Kerosene of Rs.13/ltr is a lucrative trade and money generated through this clandestine route is channeled up to Minister/Ministry .Govt. made no sincere attempt to curb adulteration till date except blue dying Kerosene in late Eighties and a recently launched Marker , which proved to be another fraud in CBI enquiry where Marker was purchased for Rs. 13000/ltr from a blacklisted British company Named BIOCODE .Marker was abruptly abandoned in 2008 after the CBI complaint and draining of Rs. 200 cr of Public money and could not be restarted even after 3 years, despite several announcements by Ministers .
Land de-leasing is another oily business HPCL/BPCL inherited large No. of Retail outlets of foreign oil companies like ESSO/CALTEX/BURMA SHELL having land prices fairly low at the time of acquisition however now prices have appreciated multi fold and de leasing the Retail outlet land fetches crores of rupees for owners, ever greedy oil company officials, Politicians fix the deal and company executes it quoting as a “VIP Reference”. Appointment of consultants and Advisors is another source of corruption, within couple months of officer attaining superannuation , he is appointed as Advisor/consultant at hefty compensation with a cut for Top company officials .HPCL alone has at least 20 such retired officers back on their rolls .Appointing foreign consultants like, Gallup, Thomson Associates, Mercer, Arthur D’little, Accenture in the name of improving productivity, Performance evaluation and boosting employee morale have failed in their objective and proved to be employment avenues for the wards of working &retired company & Ministry officials.
Bad debts and infructuous expenditure are another drain on OMCs profits ,IOC has on date Rs1800 cr in principal and 400 cr in interest outstanding fro NACIL, HPCL has Rs. 703 cr.due from beleaguered Kingfisher they claim to have a Bank Guarantee for Rs.300 cr but moot question is whether Bank will honor a Bank Guarantee to a 3rd party or settle their own dues first.IOC has Rs50 cr due from GSRTC for last 14 years. HPCL has sunk approx. 17 cr in a wound up airline Modiluft and a few crores in recent defunct Paramount Airways. The worst part is the chairmen of these companies defend and justify their decisions stating these are calculated risks. There is a popular Joke of 10 oil company officers launching a Oil conservation week each traveling alone in his car, numerous example of wasteful expenditure by OMC’s, recently BPCL spent Rs. 40 Lakhs of taxpayers money for fond farewell of one of their Director and HPCL spending Rs. 19 cr. from their Delhicoordination office on Shastri Bhawan Babus and Parliamentarians for gifting them Novelties , Mementos
The chairmen of oil companies are treated like dirt by Shastri Bhawan Babus , recently IOC/HPCL CMD’s made some statement on increasing Petrol price, they do not realize how soon they will have to eat their words. The solution lies in making Petro pricing transparent and the farce of “Import parity” should be abolished, state taxes rationalized with GST , Kerosene should be market priced and any subsidy can be paid in cash/Bank Account through smart card/Aadhar cards. Black of Domestic cylinders being sold as Non domestic must be stopped forth with , use of Domestic cylinders be limited for households. A rational price mechanism for Petrol& Diesel would provide a much awaited relief to a common man.
.Deora has been shown the door from Petroleum Ministry and Cabinet, all his cronies have been shunted to non descript assignments. Ministry ,instead of working for Ambanies, Ruias, for which CAG has already submitted a scathing report and action will be taken in due course of time, should concentrate on enhancing production of crude oil which is a long term solution ,OMC s should be pulled up to tighten their belts instead of finding excuses.
Ravi Srivastava
"To Know his battle against false Please Follow Tale of Two Whistleblower of HPCL"
Previous Articles : CORRUPTION WATCHDOG 3 C’s , COINCIDANCES, TOO MANY , THE MARK(ER) OF A SCAM-RS.200 cr. FRAUD BY MOP&NG , PUBLIC FUNDING OF A PRIVATE AIRLINE
Friday, October 21, 2011
Hidden Reality : COINCIDANCES, TOO MANY
Hidden Reality : COINCIDANCES, TOO MANY
Wednesday, 05 October 2011 00:38
"Articles By Whistleblower & Activist Ravi Srivastava on dirty oil industry and ssues which give us the hidden harsh reality and force us to think more than just normal . We are thankful to him for sharing articles with us . "ETA
February 2006 UPA I was half way through of their 5 year tenure ,told its fund raisers to fill the coffers swiftly since Elections were approaching, the money spinners of the party likes of Vilas Rao Deshmukh , Ahmed Patel , Murli Deora were assigned the specific roles ,which they have been successfully playing over decades for the Party.
Ministry of Petroleum is one such milch cow for every ruling party Adulteration, Benami Retail outlets , contracts for exploration generate huge black money which is channeled up to Minister& Ministry, till Jan 2006 Ministry was headed by a “spoke in the wheel’ Mani Shankar Aiyar a Top Bureaucrat of yesteryears known for his straight forwardness and fond of calling spade- a- spade, he received sudden marching orders High Command to Panchayati Raj a Non descript Ministry .
Murli deora a known polyester yarn broker fromMumbai and ‘cutting Chai” partner of Industry doyen Late Shri Dhiru bhai Ambani was installed as Petroleum Minister. He was an old guard of congress party but a low key operator since Rajiv Gandhi days and a loving ‘unclejee’ to Anil& Mukesh Ambani. Ambani’s are loved equally by Congress & BJP for their deep pockets and responsible for their rise & rise in India’s industrial map .The specific task cut for Deora was to raise funds at least 1000 Cr from the infamous Business houses for forthcoming Elections.
Deora started with a launch of a fuel marker for checking adulteration, such futile attempts are made by Govt. occasionally to fool & hoodwink the public at large pretending that Govt. is really serious to curb adulteration. In fact adulteration is a real money spinner and Rs. 15000 crore annual racket of oil company/Ministry officials .PDS kerosene destined for poor public is siphoned off in the market for mixing with Petrol and diesel due to substantial delta in price of kerosene vs.Motor fuels , Govt.s own agency NCEAR has admitted in their report that 38% of PDS Kerosene is diverted for mixing in connivance with Transporters/Dealers and unscrupulous State/Central Govt. officials. In the guise of checking adulteration a Rs. 200 cr. Order for a Marker was placed on M/S SGS(Recently being awarded a contract for Roads Audit by Maharashtra Govt.) an Indian agent of Authentix a British company, who were handpicked for shipping Marker into India .SGS started extortion since they were mandated by MOP&NG for checking adulteration on Petrol Pumps, 2 officials of HPCL made a complaint to CBI Mumbai in May 2008 , followed by a PIL in Hon. Mumbai High court, who ordered CBI enquiry in Oct 2008, coincidentally the said Marker was withdrawn by Deora within 2 months i.e w.e.f 1.1.2009,and Rs200 cr. Of tax payers money went down the drain without any control or reduction of rampant adulteration.
Real stakes were in RIL-RNRL case where Hon Mumbai High court ordered in favor of junior Ambani and upheld PSC(Product sharing contract)at the contracted price of Natural Gas $2.8mmscnd, elder Ambani approached the Apex court , suddenly Govt. Realized that natural Gas is a National Asset and not brothers property alone (Govt. did not know it for many years when case was in Mumbai High court) and became an intervener in the case .MOP&NG filed an affidavit in Apex court in july 2009 supporting elder Ambani’s claim. In the meantime Elections concluded and appropriately funded UPAII came into existence. Deora was quickly reinstalled as Petroleum Minister since it was a payback time for funds collected , coincidently the EGOM comprising of Deora, Shinde, Pranab also approved the price of Natural gas at $ 4.2 mmscnd, which was 150% of original price of $2.8mmscnd , such enhanced price was to benefit RIL , by Rs. 30000 cr. in next 5 years, for justification DGH ( Director General of Hydrocarbons)V.K.Sibbal’s approval for GOLD PLATING of Reliance’s capital expenditure from original estimate of Rs. 8000 cr enhanced to Rs. 44,000 cr was accepted .Sibbal was removed in Oct 2009 after enquiry into his daughter accepting white goods from Reliance officials (intercepted emails) and a Flat .There were heated allegations of serious irregularities by Junior Ambani against MOP&NG in 2009, published on the front page of Economic Times.
By an extended coincidence K.G.Balakrishnan the CJ of Apex court pronounced judgment in favor of elder Amabni and approved the price of $4.2 mmscnd within 5 days after order he was appointed as NHRC Chairman (cabinet Rank)w.e.f 11.5.2010 immediately after his superannuation
Last but not the least coincidence is that Deora has been removed as Petroleum Minister in Jan 2011and from the cabinet in july this year, for consolation his son made an insignificant Mos for retaining a roof in Delhi and to prevent his marginalization in Politics. Then Petroleum secy,Joint Secretaries have been shunted to non descript Ministries Sibbal facing CBI charge sheet in approving enhanced capex.CAG has filed a scathing report against misdeeds of Deora and his cronies in KG Basin case .K.G.Balakrishnan is facing enquiries of manipulation in Land deals by his kins and relatives, Reliance’s Natural Gas production has reduced to half then projected and its share price plummeted more the 25% till last month.
Ravi Srivastava
"To Know his battle against false Please Follow Tale of Two Whistleblower of HPCL"
Previous Articles : THE MARK(ER) OF A SCAM-RS.200 cr. FRAUD BY MOP&NG , PUBLIC FUNDING OF A PRIVATE AIRLINE
About Author
Whistleblower , Activist & Indian Against Corruption active volunteer .
I R.P.SRIVASTAVA, 56 year old ,male Graduated in Science and Chemical Technology in the year 1975, after an stint of 1 year at Eicher Tractors and 6 years in Kansai Nerolac(erstwhile Goodlass Nerolac), I joined HPCL in 1982 as an Operations Officer in Grade ‘A’.
"I am a crusader against corruption , corruption which destroyed my life exposed Rs. 200 cr. corruption in Petroleum industry Marker system invited the wrath of Murli Deora his sychphant beaurocrats , chairman of the company who promptly dismissed me from service to appease their boss"
Please Read " Tale of Two Whistleblower of HPCL to know more.....
R. P. Srivastava
ravi4354@gmail.com
304, AUM SAI Sector-7
Kharghar, Navi Mumbai 410210
Mob- 09820183924 L/L 02227744012
India Against corruption Activist and Volunteer from Navi Mumbai
My Blog http://raviprakash4354.blogspot.com
Contact Me if you want to join me in the fight .Because people support can make huge difference .
Wednesday, 05 October 2011 00:38
"Articles By Whistleblower & Activist Ravi Srivastava on dirty oil industry and ssues which give us the hidden harsh reality and force us to think more than just normal . We are thankful to him for sharing articles with us . "ETA
February 2006 UPA I was half way through of their 5 year tenure ,told its fund raisers to fill the coffers swiftly since Elections were approaching, the money spinners of the party likes of Vilas Rao Deshmukh , Ahmed Patel , Murli Deora were assigned the specific roles ,which they have been successfully playing over decades for the Party.
Ministry of Petroleum is one such milch cow for every ruling party Adulteration, Benami Retail outlets , contracts for exploration generate huge black money which is channeled up to Minister& Ministry, till Jan 2006 Ministry was headed by a “spoke in the wheel’ Mani Shankar Aiyar a Top Bureaucrat of yesteryears known for his straight forwardness and fond of calling spade- a- spade, he received sudden marching orders High Command to Panchayati Raj a Non descript Ministry .
Murli deora a known polyester yarn broker fromMumbai and ‘cutting Chai” partner of Industry doyen Late Shri Dhiru bhai Ambani was installed as Petroleum Minister. He was an old guard of congress party but a low key operator since Rajiv Gandhi days and a loving ‘unclejee’ to Anil& Mukesh Ambani. Ambani’s are loved equally by Congress & BJP for their deep pockets and responsible for their rise & rise in India’s industrial map .The specific task cut for Deora was to raise funds at least 1000 Cr from the infamous Business houses for forthcoming Elections.
Deora started with a launch of a fuel marker for checking adulteration, such futile attempts are made by Govt. occasionally to fool & hoodwink the public at large pretending that Govt. is really serious to curb adulteration. In fact adulteration is a real money spinner and Rs. 15000 crore annual racket of oil company/Ministry officials .PDS kerosene destined for poor public is siphoned off in the market for mixing with Petrol and diesel due to substantial delta in price of kerosene vs.Motor fuels , Govt.s own agency NCEAR has admitted in their report that 38% of PDS Kerosene is diverted for mixing in connivance with Transporters/Dealers and unscrupulous State/Central Govt. officials. In the guise of checking adulteration a Rs. 200 cr. Order for a Marker was placed on M/S SGS(Recently being awarded a contract for Roads Audit by Maharashtra Govt.) an Indian agent of Authentix a British company, who were handpicked for shipping Marker into India .SGS started extortion since they were mandated by MOP&NG for checking adulteration on Petrol Pumps, 2 officials of HPCL made a complaint to CBI Mumbai in May 2008 , followed by a PIL in Hon. Mumbai High court, who ordered CBI enquiry in Oct 2008, coincidentally the said Marker was withdrawn by Deora within 2 months i.e w.e.f 1.1.2009,and Rs200 cr. Of tax payers money went down the drain without any control or reduction of rampant adulteration.
Real stakes were in RIL-RNRL case where Hon Mumbai High court ordered in favor of junior Ambani and upheld PSC(Product sharing contract)at the contracted price of Natural Gas $2.8mmscnd, elder Ambani approached the Apex court , suddenly Govt. Realized that natural Gas is a National Asset and not brothers property alone (Govt. did not know it for many years when case was in Mumbai High court) and became an intervener in the case .MOP&NG filed an affidavit in Apex court in july 2009 supporting elder Ambani’s claim. In the meantime Elections concluded and appropriately funded UPAII came into existence. Deora was quickly reinstalled as Petroleum Minister since it was a payback time for funds collected , coincidently the EGOM comprising of Deora, Shinde, Pranab also approved the price of Natural gas at $ 4.2 mmscnd, which was 150% of original price of $2.8mmscnd , such enhanced price was to benefit RIL , by Rs. 30000 cr. in next 5 years, for justification DGH ( Director General of Hydrocarbons)V.K.Sibbal’s approval for GOLD PLATING of Reliance’s capital expenditure from original estimate of Rs. 8000 cr enhanced to Rs. 44,000 cr was accepted .Sibbal was removed in Oct 2009 after enquiry into his daughter accepting white goods from Reliance officials (intercepted emails) and a Flat .There were heated allegations of serious irregularities by Junior Ambani against MOP&NG in 2009, published on the front page of Economic Times.
By an extended coincidence K.G.Balakrishnan the CJ of Apex court pronounced judgment in favor of elder Amabni and approved the price of $4.2 mmscnd within 5 days after order he was appointed as NHRC Chairman (cabinet Rank)w.e.f 11.5.2010 immediately after his superannuation
Last but not the least coincidence is that Deora has been removed as Petroleum Minister in Jan 2011and from the cabinet in july this year, for consolation his son made an insignificant Mos for retaining a roof in Delhi and to prevent his marginalization in Politics. Then Petroleum secy,Joint Secretaries have been shunted to non descript Ministries Sibbal facing CBI charge sheet in approving enhanced capex.CAG has filed a scathing report against misdeeds of Deora and his cronies in KG Basin case .K.G.Balakrishnan is facing enquiries of manipulation in Land deals by his kins and relatives, Reliance’s Natural Gas production has reduced to half then projected and its share price plummeted more the 25% till last month.
Ravi Srivastava
"To Know his battle against false Please Follow Tale of Two Whistleblower of HPCL"
Previous Articles : THE MARK(ER) OF A SCAM-RS.200 cr. FRAUD BY MOP&NG , PUBLIC FUNDING OF A PRIVATE AIRLINE
About Author
Whistleblower , Activist & Indian Against Corruption active volunteer .
I R.P.SRIVASTAVA, 56 year old ,male Graduated in Science and Chemical Technology in the year 1975, after an stint of 1 year at Eicher Tractors and 6 years in Kansai Nerolac(erstwhile Goodlass Nerolac), I joined HPCL in 1982 as an Operations Officer in Grade ‘A’.
"I am a crusader against corruption , corruption which destroyed my life exposed Rs. 200 cr. corruption in Petroleum industry Marker system invited the wrath of Murli Deora his sychphant beaurocrats , chairman of the company who promptly dismissed me from service to appease their boss"
Please Read " Tale of Two Whistleblower of HPCL to know more.....
R. P. Srivastava
ravi4354@gmail.com
304, AUM SAI Sector-7
Kharghar, Navi Mumbai 410210
Mob- 09820183924 L/L 02227744012
India Against corruption Activist and Volunteer from Navi Mumbai
My Blog http://raviprakash4354.blogspot.com
Contact Me if you want to join me in the fight .Because people support can make huge difference .
Hidden Reality : CORRUPTION WATCHDOG 3 C’s
Home More Articles Hidden Reality : CORRUPTION WATCHDOG 3 C’s
Hidden Reality : CORRUPTION WATCHDOG 3 C’s
Friday, 14 October 2011 21:22
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"Articles By Whistleblower & Activist Ravi Srivastava on dirty oil industry and ssues which give us thehidden harsh reality and force us to think more than just normal . We are thankful to him for sharing articles with us . "ETA
"CAG is a classic example that how a defunct body can redeem itself , for 5o years CAG was an ordinary Govt. Auditor, whose job is to keep an eye on utilization of Public exchequer by Public Authorities .They normally station their Auditors in Govt. companies as Resident/Govt. Auditor and have office in company’s corporate offices only. Lakhs of pages of report gather dust since the job of agency is to discover, examine the misuse of Public money and report to Govt. who will in turn hand it over to various standing committees of Parliamentarians who make visit to Public sector undertakings , stay in 5 star hotels at Hill stations or Beach resorts on account of Public sector undertakings only along with their spouses sometimes .Finally no action on such voluminous reports are taken and destines to archives"
Team Anna’s Jan lok pal bill which has become a bone of contention between the Government and Civil society had approximately 13 issues of mismatch , out of which one contentious issue is to make the CVC, CBI&CAG independent , perception is that Government is scared of passing too much of Powers to the Jan Lok Pal and intends to dilute the provisions of the Bill in such a manner that even if a Public Servant is caught enough escape route is made available to defend himself .
The fear in the minds of Politicians, Babu’s is that in the very first tenure of 2 years of installing Jan Lok pal , more then half of the Ministers and similar proportion of Babu’s will be either sacked or land in Jail.
Subsequent paras will deal with the 3 dreaded C’s of Govt. feared by Public servants and how effectively these are managed and compromised so that they remain unscathed. These 3 are Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Central Bureau of investigation(CBI) and Central Vigilance Commission(CVC), all 3 have constitutionally appointed heads chosen by the PM, Leader of Opposition , HM from serving or superannuated Babu’s including IRS, IPS officers, by virtue of their inherent love , affection , empathy for their brethren , even if a case is made, it is diluted in such a way that the Elevation , posting , assignment and benefits of the serving bureaucrat remain unaffected/protected, take the example of Thomas who was appointed CVC despite Charge sheet against him and finally Apex court had to null his appointment.
Modus operandi for such appointments is suppose a CPSU(Central Public Sector Undertaking) Director aspiring to become Chairman and having a case against him , he will swiftly depute a company official (All oustation based CPSUs have a Delhi Coordination office)to keep a close liaison with CVC , such officers are almost Dalal’s/Fixers in the capital for respective CPSU’s/Deptt, his file is tracked on day to day basis, such coordination offices have agents in the guise of consultants in the parliament, Ministry , CBI and have crores of Rupees of Unaudited Budget at their disposal, such agents ensure that the pending case is closed before, CVC nod for appointment is given. Such clearances are also essential before releasing Pension, Benefits of retiring PSU Board level executives or their elevation in the Organization.
CVC though called a ‘Watchdog’ and has even superintending powers over CBI , factually it is not even Stray/street dog , leave aside biting , it does not even bark for a simple reason that it is paid established and controlled by the same Govt, whose servants it has to Act against, and therefore it has no option but to wag its tail before its masters. Second handicap is its understaffing ,barely 37 officers manning all the crucial departments , CVC appoints more then 250 CVO’s in CPSU’s and Govt. departments like Railways, Income Tax, some of these have Lakhs of employees working in those establishments .CVC officials have admitted that they are not more then a Post Office, which receives the complaint from Public, Employees against Public Servants and in turn forwards it to the same company for investigating and taking action against their own erring officials, In the process if the complainant is a “Whistle blower” from the same Organization his identity and complaint both are fully compromised and he is thrown before the ‘wolves’ of the Organization to have a field day.
CVC’s powers are recommendatory, its recommendations are passed through the concerned Ministry’s vigilance and finally to the Chairman or Deptt. Head who decides whether he concurs with the recommendation or dilutes it e.g if CVC recommends demotion , the deptt will reduce it to stoppage of increments, if CVC recommends termination, he will be suspended and so on.
Departmental CVO’s are a defunct lot, they consider PSU assignment as a “Parking slot” before their next time scale promotion and enjoy all the privileges, perquisites, benefits of the Government company, distinctly recall one Principal Accountant General appointed as CVO of HPCL he was selling his Books to company officials and company was sponsoring his CD’s of Yoga exercises. Such privileges these CVO’s IRS, IPS officers would have never enjoyed in their parent cadres where they will be stuffed in a 2Room flat inDhaula kuan or R.K.Puram in capital e.g once he gets assigned as CVO in Bharat Petroleum Bombay he gets a 4 BHK bunglow with company car, fully Air-conditioned office and Residence, Normally these officers use these postings as “Picnic”, neither they have any attachment with company’s performance nor have any intention to curb prevailing corruption .Such CVO’S confine themselves to mere preaching during Vigilance awareness week (a ritual in the first week of November every year)and quietly move out after completing tenure of 2-3 years.
Another farce is that CVO’s functionally report to CVC but administratively report to Chairman or HOD of the deptt, if any complaint against any company employee is received, CVO takes it to Chairman and bargains for some additional benefit for himself else he threatens the chairman to expose his wrong doings end result remains that “I scratch your back you scratch mine”
If any employee directly reports corruption to CVC /CBI the complaint is forwarded to the respective CVO and in the process his identity is exposed/compromised with the same people against whom he had complained.There is no punishment anywhere in the world for making a complaint but such “thorny’ individual is treated as an “eyesore” in the organization and a threat to a well oiled institutionalized corrupt system prevailing in the very organization .All people in Authority pounce upon him and try to implicate him in some frivolous disciplinary cases with the sole objective of easing him out from the organization in the first available opportunity.
Less said the better about functioning of CBI which is rechristened as Criminal bureau of investigation or congress bureau of Investigation, whose primary function is to “book” the people , who are against the ruling party and “release” or give the “clean chit” to those who belong to ruling party, objective of this agency is not to conclude the case(as far as possible) and drag it indefinitely to facilitate retirement of the guilty Public servant .Apex court has fired the agency hundred of times for their Partisan, enquiries .It has got its own courts, prosecuting machinery but it is a fact that 90% of the cases fall flat in the courts because of shoddy investigation or weak prosecution.
CAG is a classic example that how a defunct body can redeem itself , for 5o years CAG was an ordinary Govt. Auditor, whose job is to keep an eye on utilization of Public exchequer by Public Authorities .They normally station their Auditors in Govt. companies as Resident/Govt. Auditor and have office in company’s corporate offices only. Lakhs of pages of report gather dust since the job of agency is to discover, examine the misuse of Public money and report to Govt. who will in turn hand it over to various standing committees of Parliamentarians who make visit to Public sector undertakings , stay in 5 star hotels at Hill stations or Beach resorts on account of Public sector undertakings only along with their spouses sometimes .Finally no action on such voluminous reports are taken and destines to archives
It is first time since independence that this body has unearthed a Rs. 1.76 Lakh cr. 2G scam, MOP&NG’s RIL’s KG Basin scam(quantum of Public money plundered is yet to be established), nevertheless this agency has at least shown the courage of exposing their masters which must be applauded.
To conclude it is a very legitimate demand from TEAM ANNA that all these 3 agencies must be made to report Jan Lok Pal (CBI’s only Anti corruption wing), the live example is Apex court monitored probe into 2G scam which has sent 16 Ministers, Parliamentarians and corporate honchos behind the bars of Tihar Jail.
Long Live Jan Lok Pal
Ravi Srivastava
Hidden Reality : CORRUPTION WATCHDOG 3 C’s
Friday, 14 October 2011 21:22
inShare
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0 Comments
16
Share
"Articles By Whistleblower & Activist Ravi Srivastava on dirty oil industry and ssues which give us thehidden harsh reality and force us to think more than just normal . We are thankful to him for sharing articles with us . "ETA
"CAG is a classic example that how a defunct body can redeem itself , for 5o years CAG was an ordinary Govt. Auditor, whose job is to keep an eye on utilization of Public exchequer by Public Authorities .They normally station their Auditors in Govt. companies as Resident/Govt. Auditor and have office in company’s corporate offices only. Lakhs of pages of report gather dust since the job of agency is to discover, examine the misuse of Public money and report to Govt. who will in turn hand it over to various standing committees of Parliamentarians who make visit to Public sector undertakings , stay in 5 star hotels at Hill stations or Beach resorts on account of Public sector undertakings only along with their spouses sometimes .Finally no action on such voluminous reports are taken and destines to archives"
Team Anna’s Jan lok pal bill which has become a bone of contention between the Government and Civil society had approximately 13 issues of mismatch , out of which one contentious issue is to make the CVC, CBI&CAG independent , perception is that Government is scared of passing too much of Powers to the Jan Lok Pal and intends to dilute the provisions of the Bill in such a manner that even if a Public Servant is caught enough escape route is made available to defend himself .
The fear in the minds of Politicians, Babu’s is that in the very first tenure of 2 years of installing Jan Lok pal , more then half of the Ministers and similar proportion of Babu’s will be either sacked or land in Jail.
Subsequent paras will deal with the 3 dreaded C’s of Govt. feared by Public servants and how effectively these are managed and compromised so that they remain unscathed. These 3 are Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Central Bureau of investigation(CBI) and Central Vigilance Commission(CVC), all 3 have constitutionally appointed heads chosen by the PM, Leader of Opposition , HM from serving or superannuated Babu’s including IRS, IPS officers, by virtue of their inherent love , affection , empathy for their brethren , even if a case is made, it is diluted in such a way that the Elevation , posting , assignment and benefits of the serving bureaucrat remain unaffected/protected, take the example of Thomas who was appointed CVC despite Charge sheet against him and finally Apex court had to null his appointment.
Modus operandi for such appointments is suppose a CPSU(Central Public Sector Undertaking) Director aspiring to become Chairman and having a case against him , he will swiftly depute a company official (All oustation based CPSUs have a Delhi Coordination office)to keep a close liaison with CVC , such officers are almost Dalal’s/Fixers in the capital for respective CPSU’s/Deptt, his file is tracked on day to day basis, such coordination offices have agents in the guise of consultants in the parliament, Ministry , CBI and have crores of Rupees of Unaudited Budget at their disposal, such agents ensure that the pending case is closed before, CVC nod for appointment is given. Such clearances are also essential before releasing Pension, Benefits of retiring PSU Board level executives or their elevation in the Organization.
CVC though called a ‘Watchdog’ and has even superintending powers over CBI , factually it is not even Stray/street dog , leave aside biting , it does not even bark for a simple reason that it is paid established and controlled by the same Govt, whose servants it has to Act against, and therefore it has no option but to wag its tail before its masters. Second handicap is its understaffing ,barely 37 officers manning all the crucial departments , CVC appoints more then 250 CVO’s in CPSU’s and Govt. departments like Railways, Income Tax, some of these have Lakhs of employees working in those establishments .CVC officials have admitted that they are not more then a Post Office, which receives the complaint from Public, Employees against Public Servants and in turn forwards it to the same company for investigating and taking action against their own erring officials, In the process if the complainant is a “Whistle blower” from the same Organization his identity and complaint both are fully compromised and he is thrown before the ‘wolves’ of the Organization to have a field day.
CVC’s powers are recommendatory, its recommendations are passed through the concerned Ministry’s vigilance and finally to the Chairman or Deptt. Head who decides whether he concurs with the recommendation or dilutes it e.g if CVC recommends demotion , the deptt will reduce it to stoppage of increments, if CVC recommends termination, he will be suspended and so on.
Departmental CVO’s are a defunct lot, they consider PSU assignment as a “Parking slot” before their next time scale promotion and enjoy all the privileges, perquisites, benefits of the Government company, distinctly recall one Principal Accountant General appointed as CVO of HPCL he was selling his Books to company officials and company was sponsoring his CD’s of Yoga exercises. Such privileges these CVO’s IRS, IPS officers would have never enjoyed in their parent cadres where they will be stuffed in a 2Room flat inDhaula kuan or R.K.Puram in capital e.g once he gets assigned as CVO in Bharat Petroleum Bombay he gets a 4 BHK bunglow with company car, fully Air-conditioned office and Residence, Normally these officers use these postings as “Picnic”, neither they have any attachment with company’s performance nor have any intention to curb prevailing corruption .Such CVO’S confine themselves to mere preaching during Vigilance awareness week (a ritual in the first week of November every year)and quietly move out after completing tenure of 2-3 years.
Another farce is that CVO’s functionally report to CVC but administratively report to Chairman or HOD of the deptt, if any complaint against any company employee is received, CVO takes it to Chairman and bargains for some additional benefit for himself else he threatens the chairman to expose his wrong doings end result remains that “I scratch your back you scratch mine”
If any employee directly reports corruption to CVC /CBI the complaint is forwarded to the respective CVO and in the process his identity is exposed/compromised with the same people against whom he had complained.There is no punishment anywhere in the world for making a complaint but such “thorny’ individual is treated as an “eyesore” in the organization and a threat to a well oiled institutionalized corrupt system prevailing in the very organization .All people in Authority pounce upon him and try to implicate him in some frivolous disciplinary cases with the sole objective of easing him out from the organization in the first available opportunity.
Less said the better about functioning of CBI which is rechristened as Criminal bureau of investigation or congress bureau of Investigation, whose primary function is to “book” the people , who are against the ruling party and “release” or give the “clean chit” to those who belong to ruling party, objective of this agency is not to conclude the case(as far as possible) and drag it indefinitely to facilitate retirement of the guilty Public servant .Apex court has fired the agency hundred of times for their Partisan, enquiries .It has got its own courts, prosecuting machinery but it is a fact that 90% of the cases fall flat in the courts because of shoddy investigation or weak prosecution.
CAG is a classic example that how a defunct body can redeem itself , for 5o years CAG was an ordinary Govt. Auditor, whose job is to keep an eye on utilization of Public exchequer by Public Authorities .They normally station their Auditors in Govt. companies as Resident/Govt. Auditor and have office in company’s corporate offices only. Lakhs of pages of report gather dust since the job of agency is to discover, examine the misuse of Public money and report to Govt. who will in turn hand it over to various standing committees of Parliamentarians who make visit to Public sector undertakings , stay in 5 star hotels at Hill stations or Beach resorts on account of Public sector undertakings only along with their spouses sometimes .Finally no action on such voluminous reports are taken and destines to archives
It is first time since independence that this body has unearthed a Rs. 1.76 Lakh cr. 2G scam, MOP&NG’s RIL’s KG Basin scam(quantum of Public money plundered is yet to be established), nevertheless this agency has at least shown the courage of exposing their masters which must be applauded.
To conclude it is a very legitimate demand from TEAM ANNA that all these 3 agencies must be made to report Jan Lok Pal (CBI’s only Anti corruption wing), the live example is Apex court monitored probe into 2G scam which has sent 16 Ministers, Parliamentarians and corporate honchos behind the bars of Tihar Jail.
Long Live Jan Lok Pal
Ravi Srivastava
HPCL’s Delhi office lists Rs19 crore expenses on gifts, flowers, jewellery, a lot of it on parliamentarians
HPCL’s Delhi office lists Rs19 crore expenses on gifts, flowers, jewellery, a lot of it on parliamentarians
Published on Oct 19 2011 // BUSINESS AND ECONOMY, Delhi, India, LATEST NEWS, Maharashtra, Photo Show, slideshow
dilhi : Moneylife Digital Team
Much of this apparently unaccounted expenditure has been incurred on visits of parliamentary committee members, who are in fact forbidden by protocol from receiving gifts
At a time when Hindustan Petroleum is said to have a lot of money blocked in dues from airlines and other big businesses, it looks like the oil distributor is spending a lot on some inexplicable items.
Ledger entries for Hindustan Petroleum’s Delhi coordination office account reveal that the Navratna company has spent substantial amounts on hotel bills, gifts, flowers and jewellery. Since 2006, about Rs19 crore has been spent on such items. In 2010-11 alone, the company’s Delhi office spent some Rs1.28 crore on this account.
Repeated phone calls and an email message to the HPCL spokesperson did not yield any response.
A major part of the expenses are attributed to visits by member of parliamentary committees. According to parliament rules, such committee members are entitled to stay at government guest houses and they are paid travel and other allowances, so it is unclear why HPCL, a public sector unit, is bearing the expenses of these members.
Apart from travel and accommodation expenses, the HPCL office also lists expenses on gifts, shawls, mementoes and lunch for these committee members.
In 2010-11, expenses on such gifts totalled Rs51,510 and some shawls were bought at a cost of Rs7,396, as per entries on 17 and 27 January 2011.
There are also other entries like Rs93,000 worth of mementoes for parliamentary members on 12 January 2011 and Rs12,040 for “parliamentary committee expenses” on 11 Februray 2011. In fact, protocol forbids giving or receiving of such gifts by parliamentarians.
Another large amount has been paid for taxi bills and the money is debited against the names of various individuals. More than Rs1 lakh was paid towards the stay of some executive at Mumbai’s Trident Hotel in 2009.
Ravi Srivastava, former sales manager, HPCL, who lost his job after blowing the whistle on the adulterant marker case (read, “Hindustan Petroleum whistleblowers not reinstated even a year after HC order), has alleged that it is likely the expenses shown have been appropriated by some HPCL staff.
“Some of the names against which expenses are mentioned are employees of HPCL. Why do you want to pay money to your own employees outside their salary,” Mr Srivastava asked.
He said this was an indication that money was being swindled after showing some bogus expenditure entries on paper. “And why should a PSU gift shawls and mementoes to members of expert committees, when they are subsidised by the government itself,” he said.
Mr Srivastava believed that such swindling was possible at the Delhi office as there are no checks on expenses there. “In HPCL’s other offices, accounts have to be audited, and there is strict surveillance. So the people who want to make some additional money do it through the Delhi office where such expenditure is not checked.”
Published on Oct 19 2011 // BUSINESS AND ECONOMY, Delhi, India, LATEST NEWS, Maharashtra, Photo Show, slideshow
dilhi : Moneylife Digital Team
Much of this apparently unaccounted expenditure has been incurred on visits of parliamentary committee members, who are in fact forbidden by protocol from receiving gifts
At a time when Hindustan Petroleum is said to have a lot of money blocked in dues from airlines and other big businesses, it looks like the oil distributor is spending a lot on some inexplicable items.
Ledger entries for Hindustan Petroleum’s Delhi coordination office account reveal that the Navratna company has spent substantial amounts on hotel bills, gifts, flowers and jewellery. Since 2006, about Rs19 crore has been spent on such items. In 2010-11 alone, the company’s Delhi office spent some Rs1.28 crore on this account.
Repeated phone calls and an email message to the HPCL spokesperson did not yield any response.
A major part of the expenses are attributed to visits by member of parliamentary committees. According to parliament rules, such committee members are entitled to stay at government guest houses and they are paid travel and other allowances, so it is unclear why HPCL, a public sector unit, is bearing the expenses of these members.
Apart from travel and accommodation expenses, the HPCL office also lists expenses on gifts, shawls, mementoes and lunch for these committee members.
In 2010-11, expenses on such gifts totalled Rs51,510 and some shawls were bought at a cost of Rs7,396, as per entries on 17 and 27 January 2011.
There are also other entries like Rs93,000 worth of mementoes for parliamentary members on 12 January 2011 and Rs12,040 for “parliamentary committee expenses” on 11 Februray 2011. In fact, protocol forbids giving or receiving of such gifts by parliamentarians.
Another large amount has been paid for taxi bills and the money is debited against the names of various individuals. More than Rs1 lakh was paid towards the stay of some executive at Mumbai’s Trident Hotel in 2009.
Ravi Srivastava, former sales manager, HPCL, who lost his job after blowing the whistle on the adulterant marker case (read, “Hindustan Petroleum whistleblowers not reinstated even a year after HC order), has alleged that it is likely the expenses shown have been appropriated by some HPCL staff.
“Some of the names against which expenses are mentioned are employees of HPCL. Why do you want to pay money to your own employees outside their salary,” Mr Srivastava asked.
He said this was an indication that money was being swindled after showing some bogus expenditure entries on paper. “And why should a PSU gift shawls and mementoes to members of expert committees, when they are subsidised by the government itself,” he said.
Mr Srivastava believed that such swindling was possible at the Delhi office as there are no checks on expenses there. “In HPCL’s other offices, accounts have to be audited, and there is strict surveillance. So the people who want to make some additional money do it through the Delhi office where such expenditure is not checked.”
HPCL oil refinery: Bombay HC raps government, BMC
HPCL oil refinery: Bombay HC raps government, BMC
Published: Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011, 22:14 IST
By DNA Correspondent | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA
The Bombay high court rapped the Maharashtra government and the Brihanmumbai municipal Corporation (BMC) for failing to consider public health and safety concerns around the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) before granting permission to construct a residential-cum-commercial complex adjoining the refinery.
A division bench of justice PB Majmudar and justice RM Sawant continued the stay on the construction by Oswal Agro Mills Limited, which purchased the factory earlier owned by Union Carbide.
"Government mechanically permitted conversion from industrial zone to commercial zone in which even residential construction are also permitted… Public health and safety should be of paramount importance and should not be made a casualty of by the state government and the (municipal) corporation," observed the bench while asking the BMC, government and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board to file its reply.
Justice Majmudar further remarked: "The government has not applied its mind before converting the land to commercial zone. It is unfortunate that even after incidents like Bhopal gas tragedy, the government has failed to consider vital aspects of safety and security. If tomorrow some untoward incident takes place who is to take responsibility."
The court was hearing a petition filed by HPCL stating that a residential-cum-commercial project in the vicinity of their refinery not only poses threat to their installations but also the residents would be at risk because of the fumes from their refinery.
Fredun DeVitre, HPCL's counsel, pointed out a report by the Intelligence Bureau stating that post 26/11 terror attacks wherein sea route was used, there was heightened security threat to oil installations.
Priti Purandare, advocate for BMC, argued that they sanctioned the plans of Oswal since the government granted permission as per the amendment in the Development Control Regulations (DCR) and converting the area from I-3 (industrial zone) to commercial zone.
The court observed: "It cannot be of dispute that the refinery is of hazardous activity and untoward incident may occur. Surprisingly the state government did not consider this aspect while modifying the DCR and converting it to commercial zone."
Janak Dwarkadas, counsels for Oswal, argued that they have taken the necessary permission from all the concerned authorities before commencing construction.
"In February, a meeting was called of all the concerned parties, where HPCL was also present. They were given the option of acquiring the plot of Union Carbide too if they considered it to be a threat to their installations. They were to inform within 15 days, however, they never replied," argued Dwarkadas.
As per the DCR a buffer of 500 meters has to be kept from the refinery. HPCL itself has a plot which is not developed. The plot falls between the refinery and the construction by Oswal. "They can leave 500 meters free over there. They can't ask us not to construct in the vicinity," added Dwarkadas.
The court also reprimanded the HPCL for delay on their part for acting on the matter. Justice Majmudar remarked: "You (HPCL) should have taken action then instead your officers waited till construction began. There is no doubt that prima facie your officers are also involved. Officers should have been vigilant."
DeVitre argued that it got sanction to approach the court only in February this year. He added that the chairman of HPCL would look into why officers did not report the matter immediately and would initiate enquiry if required.
The court has directed the government, BMC and MPCB to file their reply by November 15 and kept the petition for hearing on November 21.
Published: Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011, 22:14 IST
By DNA Correspondent | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA
The Bombay high court rapped the Maharashtra government and the Brihanmumbai municipal Corporation (BMC) for failing to consider public health and safety concerns around the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) before granting permission to construct a residential-cum-commercial complex adjoining the refinery.
A division bench of justice PB Majmudar and justice RM Sawant continued the stay on the construction by Oswal Agro Mills Limited, which purchased the factory earlier owned by Union Carbide.
"Government mechanically permitted conversion from industrial zone to commercial zone in which even residential construction are also permitted… Public health and safety should be of paramount importance and should not be made a casualty of by the state government and the (municipal) corporation," observed the bench while asking the BMC, government and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board to file its reply.
Justice Majmudar further remarked: "The government has not applied its mind before converting the land to commercial zone. It is unfortunate that even after incidents like Bhopal gas tragedy, the government has failed to consider vital aspects of safety and security. If tomorrow some untoward incident takes place who is to take responsibility."
The court was hearing a petition filed by HPCL stating that a residential-cum-commercial project in the vicinity of their refinery not only poses threat to their installations but also the residents would be at risk because of the fumes from their refinery.
Fredun DeVitre, HPCL's counsel, pointed out a report by the Intelligence Bureau stating that post 26/11 terror attacks wherein sea route was used, there was heightened security threat to oil installations.
Priti Purandare, advocate for BMC, argued that they sanctioned the plans of Oswal since the government granted permission as per the amendment in the Development Control Regulations (DCR) and converting the area from I-3 (industrial zone) to commercial zone.
The court observed: "It cannot be of dispute that the refinery is of hazardous activity and untoward incident may occur. Surprisingly the state government did not consider this aspect while modifying the DCR and converting it to commercial zone."
Janak Dwarkadas, counsels for Oswal, argued that they have taken the necessary permission from all the concerned authorities before commencing construction.
"In February, a meeting was called of all the concerned parties, where HPCL was also present. They were given the option of acquiring the plot of Union Carbide too if they considered it to be a threat to their installations. They were to inform within 15 days, however, they never replied," argued Dwarkadas.
As per the DCR a buffer of 500 meters has to be kept from the refinery. HPCL itself has a plot which is not developed. The plot falls between the refinery and the construction by Oswal. "They can leave 500 meters free over there. They can't ask us not to construct in the vicinity," added Dwarkadas.
The court also reprimanded the HPCL for delay on their part for acting on the matter. Justice Majmudar remarked: "You (HPCL) should have taken action then instead your officers waited till construction began. There is no doubt that prima facie your officers are also involved. Officers should have been vigilant."
DeVitre argued that it got sanction to approach the court only in February this year. He added that the chairman of HPCL would look into why officers did not report the matter immediately and would initiate enquiry if required.
The court has directed the government, BMC and MPCB to file their reply by November 15 and kept the petition for hearing on November 21.
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