How Gujarat Government Officers, Contractors Siphoned Off Rs 5.48 Crore

The Gujarat CID-Crime on Wednesday arrested ten people, including four government employees and five contractors, in connection with an alleged conspiracy wherein approvals for Rs 5.48 crore were secured without executing any work, police said.

The implicated officials and employees of the Gujarat Water Supply & Sewerage Board (GWSSB) allegedly forged bills, Fixed Deposit Receipts (FDR), and other documents to obtain approvals for payments totalling Rs 5.48 crore to seven contractors without performing any actual work.

Following the registration of an FIR under various sections of the Indian Penal Code related to forgery, cheating, criminal conspiracy, and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the CID-Crime's Surat zone office arrested ten out of the 14 individuals named in the FIR, CID-Crime stated in a release.

The 14 accused include a retired GWSSB engineer, six current employees, and seven contractors. Those arrested include retired executive engineer D.B. Patel, five contractors, and four junior officials-an accountant, two clerks, and a deputy engineer-who had already been suspended by the GWSSB.

The FIR states that in 2022, seven officials from the GWSSB's Navsari office, including Patel who retired in 2023, conspired with seven private contractors to siphon off government funds meant for providing drinking water to various villages under government schemes.

Mr Patel and his co-conspirators flouted tender rules, inviting bids and awarding contracts without maintaining proper records of the bidding process, the CID-Crime stated.

Despite knowing that the selected contractors had not completed the work, the officials presented the bills for payment disbursement. A subsequent field visit by Board officials conducted out of suspicion, revealed that no such work had been carried out, according to the release.

Further investigations suggested that Patel and others had assigned work in areas with no demand for such projects.

The accused officials also presented forged Fixed Deposit receipts to the head office, falsely claiming that the contractors had deposited Rs 20 lakh as a security deposit. These receipts later turned out to be colour printouts, the CID-Crime stated.