NEW DELHI: Railtel sources said that despite the body having its own cadre that is enough to handle the operations, successive CMDs are bringing officials close to them on deputation to the PSU.
A complaint received by the Chief Vigilance Commission earlier last month has revealed that public sector undertakings under the Ministry of Railways, including Railtel, IRCTC, Concor and IRCON paid unauthorized perks to officials who were deputed to these organizations despite strict and clear guidelines from the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, not to do so.
As per the documents and complaints, a total of Rs 19.74 crore was paid to deputationists on the orders of the heads of these PSUs, with the most—Rs 8.86 crore of public money—being paid by Railtel. On top of that, despite a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report that called for the recovery of this unauthorized payment, none of these PSUs, as per the complaint received by the CVC, has agreed to do so, leading to speculations that the said unauthorized amount was released by former and present top brass of the PSUs in lieu of benefits.
Railtel sources said that despite the body having its own cadre that is enough to handle the operations, successive CMDs are bringing officials close to them on deputation to the PSU.
Documents accessed by The Sunday Guardian show that an office order was issued by the top brass of Railtel that doubled the tax-free allowance to the officers who were brought on deputation, the expenses of which were borne by Railtel. As per norms, this nature of allowance was, until the order, only applicable to the permanent employees of Railtel.
An 11 November 2022 communication sent by the then Executive Director (Planning, Civil and Public Sector Undertaking), Railway Board, Sandeep Jain, to CMDs of 12 PSUs under the Railway Ministry highlighted this issue and stated, “It has come to the notice of the ministry that some of the CPSEs under the administrative control of the Railway Ministry have been giving additional financial incentives (named as expert professional allowance, ex-gratia, increments, etc.) to employees who are on deputation to these companies either on a monthly or an annual basis, over and above what is permitted by DPE/DoPT.”
It further states that the additional financial incentives to the deputationists are in violation of the existing instructions. The said letter by Jain had asked the CMDs of these PSUs to follow the guidelines laid down by DoPT and DPE in “letter and spirit” and submit a compliance report to the Railway Board by 18 November 2022.
In another significant communication in the matter, the then Deputy Director Finance, Railway Board, on 9 January 2023, in a communication to Manoj Kumar Dubey (Director Finance, Concor), M.K. Singh (Director Finance, IRCON), Ajit Kumar (Director Finance, IRCTC), and V. Rama Manohara Rao (Director Finance, Railtel), had sought a response from them on the March 2022 CAG report that had flagged the anomalies to the amount of Rs 19.74 crore that was paid by these PSUs wrongly in contravention of rules to officers who had come on deputation from 2015-2022.
As per the CAG report, on which the Railway Board had sought a reply, Container Corporation of India Limited paid Rs 6.77 crore, IRCON International Rs 1.81 crore, IRCTC Rs 2.30 crore, and Railtel Rs 8.86 crore in violation of rules. The CAG order had called for the recovery of the said amount.
The CAG, while rejecting the reply that was given by these PSU heads to justify the illegal payment, had asked the Ministry of Railways to instruct the PSUs to immediately stop payment to deputationists and ensure the recovery of the said amount from these PSUs.
The Sunday Guardian reached out to the Railway Board, apart from the top officials of the concerned PSUs, including Railtel, Concor, IRCTC, and IRCON, with a detailed questionnaire on the matter seeking a reply. However, none of them provided their responses by the given deadline.
Officials related to the PSUs have stated that a detailed inquiry in this matter is likely to reveal the alleged wrongdoings on the part of the top officials of these PSUs who have headed them since 2015.