LG orders FIR against 9 retired, 2 serving DDA officials

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has ordered an FIR against nine retired and two serving Delhi Development Authority (DDA) officials in a nine-year-old case of financial misappropriation, officials said on Thursday.
The LG, who is the DDA chairman, has also ordered permanent withdrawal of pension of the nine retired officials.
“Lt Governor, VK Saxena, in his capacity as DDA chairman, has ordered that an FIR be registered against the then member (finance) and the then member (engineering) of DDA, apart from nine other officials in a 2013 case of blatant financial misappropriation and violation of codal formalities, Central Public Works Department Works Manual,” the official said.
The nine retired officials include a chief engineer, a superintendent engineer and an executive engineer while the others were employed in the finance and accounts departments. On “permanent withdrawal of full pension benefits”, the officials said the LG took the stern measure considering the “grave misconduct and loss to the exchequer” even as the DDA recommended deducting only 25 per cent of the amount.
The case relates to the work for up-gradation and beautification of Coronation Park at Kingsway Camp that was awarded to M/s Ajab Singh & Co. in 2013. Thetender cost of the work was Rs 14.24 crore but additional works amounting to Rs114.83 crore was carried out at Narela and Dhirpur, without any sanctions.
In a nutshell, the original project cost of Rs 14.24 crore was escalated to Rs 28.36 crore and the same was further deviated with additional work, at a different location altogether, amounting to Rs. 114.83 Crore was executed without any sanctioned estimate. This resulted in overall payment of Rs 142.08 crore to the agency. This gross irregularity was pointed out by the CAG in its report in 2016, which concluded an overall deviation of 897.67% (almost 9 times) from the original work.