2 departments of NMC involved in fake contract scam

Nagpur: In the preliminary investigation of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), the involvement of several employees of two departments in the fraudulent contract scam has been revealed. The civic body has recovered about Rs 67 lakh by paying to private firms, A complaint has been registered at the Sadar police station, and show cause notices have been issued to about 6 employees.

A contractor running 5 different firms in the name of himself and his family members had prepared about 42 fake contracts with the forged signatures of Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sanjay Chilkar and the rest of the employees of Nagpur Municipal Corporation Health Department. And they never supplied material at all, But from the Accounts and Finance Department, make a payment of about Rs 67,08,630.

The additional municipal commissioner of Nagpur Municipal Corporation whose name is Ram Joshi. They have conducted a preliminary inquiry and then it was found that these fake contracts were being prepared between the dates of December 20, 2020 and March 31, 2021.

He said that after the file is submitted with the Accounts and Finance Department, the concerned department has to generate the bill online on the payment module developed by Nagpur Municipal Corporation under the e-governance project. And then the head of the department has to clear it all online. This bill goes to the online accounts and with the finance department. The employees of the Finance Department and Accounts will also have to cross-check the online bill along with the file.

General Administration Department

Each of the bogus contracts belonged to the Health Department, but the bills were created and approved by the General Administration Department (GAD). Along with this, an employee of the General Administration Department was also in connivance with the contractor. And this employee also had the username and password of the head of the General Administration Department and used that to process approvals

Ram has stated that the Nagpur Municipal Corporation has recovered the amount as the check was already paid 1 day back.

He has also said that Chilkar had lodged a complaint with the Sadar police station against five firms- S K Enterprises, Swastik Trade Link, Gurukripa Stationers and Printers, Sudarshan Paper Converting, Manohar Sakode, and Brothers. Show cause notices have also been issued to assistant commissioner (GAD) Mahesh Dhamecha, chief accounts, and finance officer Vijay Kolhe, and auditor Afaque Ahmed, accounts officer Rajesh Meshram, senior clerk at General Administration Department Mohan Padwanshi, and auditor SY Nagdive.

A notice has also been issued to Mahesh as he too had given his username and password to his own subordinate.

Vinod Chaudhari, Sadar PI, said that this investigation is going on now and after the completion of the investigation, a case will also be registered.

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