Give details of hardware, software deals: CIC to NCB
Saturday, 19 March 2011, 07:25 IST
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New Delhi: CIC has directed the Narcotics Control Bureau , an organisation exempted under the RTI Act, to make public details of software and hardware procured from a firm in which the wife of the then Zonal Director, Chennai allegedly had interests. The case relates to an application filed by social activist Vishwanath Swami who has blown cover off an alleged corruption in purchases made by NCB during the tenure of the then Zonal Director, Shankar Jiwal in Chennai between 1999-2006. The Bureau had cited exemption clauses relating to personal safety of the officials to disclose the information. Armed with documents from Registrar of Companies, Swami alleged before the Central Information Commission that the purchases were made from a single company D3D technologies without calling for open tenders and obtaining "bogus quotations" from some other companies. "A single order had been split into single amounts and issued 12 cheques totaling Rs 43,26,484 to this company-D3D Technologies," Swami had highlighted before the Commission. He alleged "his investigations...astonishingly revealed that one of the three directors of this company is Mr Shankar Jiwal's wife Mamta Sharma (Jiwal). In the Registrar of Companies certified documents...Mrs Mamta meticulously avoids mentioning her husband's name in the relevant column, instead she mentions her father's surname-Sharma. "But unwittingly in the address column, she gives her residence address which turns out to be her husband's central government quarters' address," Swami had alleged. Information Commissioner Sushma Singh found merit in the arguments put forth by Swami and yesterday directed the NCB to make public names of all the companies from where quotations were called for purchasing the gadgets. "The Commission is of the view that the sought for information pertains to allegations of corruption. Under section 24 of the RTI Act, the information pertaining to allegations of corruption is not excluded from disclosure," Singh said in her order. The Commission also directed to make public comparative statements, quotations from various suppliers, note-sheets dealing with particular suppliers, requisition letters to Kendriya Bhandar regarding purchase of hardware and software. Singh said copy of the letter of Kendriya Bhandar confirming and recommending the name of D3D technology should also be provided to the applicant.
Source: PTI
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