J&K Anti-Corruption Bureau has registered a case against some top J&K Bank officers for awarding a house-keeping contract to a Mumbai firm in 2015 allegedly without following proper norms.
A spokesperson of the bureau said the improper awarding of the contract resulted in losses to the tune of over Rs 6.29 crore to the bank.
The bureau has registered an FIR against Surjeet Singh Seghal, the then Executive President J&K Bank (now retired), Parvaiz Ahmad, the then Chairman of J&K Bank (now retired), Feroz Ahmad, the then Assistant Vice President; and Sahil Vora and Rishabh Vora, Directors, M/s SILA Solutions Pvt. Ltd. along with the residents of 508 Olympus Apartments 5C, Altamont Road Mumbai-400026 on the allegation that the officers/officials of J&K Bank Ltd. awarded tenders of housekeeping to a Mumbai based Company M/s SILA Solutions Pvt. Ltd by not following the proper tendering norms and that has led to the losses to the bank of the tune of Rs. 6,29,56,575/- from the date of award of contract.
According to spokesperson the case pertains to allotment of tenders for housekeeping of offsite ATMs to M/S SILA Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
“Earlier, verification was conducted by Anti-Corruption Bureau Central into the matter wherein it was revealed that J&K Bank with HQ at Srinagar came out with a pan-India tender for housekeeping services in the year 2015. J&K bank officials in contravention of tender conditions negotiated the rates with M/S SILA Solutions Pvt Ltd. The tender was awarded to M/S SILA Solutions Pvt Ltd in gross violation of General Financial Rules (GFR).”
“The contract of M/S SILA Solutions Pvt Ltd amongst other conditions included ATM cleaning and deployment of janitors. The additional management fee awarded to M/S SILA Solutions Pvt Ltd by J&K Bank was not part of the original tender. The loss on the account of the tender has worked out to be more than Rs 6 crores. The loss is likely to go up as investigation progresses.”
ACB spokesperson stated that in this connection, on 17.09.2020, P/S ACB Srinagar Kashmir conducted search at the residential house of Feroz Ahmad Kaloo, Assistant Vice President J&K Bank S/O Mohammad Maqbool Kaloo situated at Mohalla Muma Khan (Kathidarwaza), opposite Psychiatric Hospital Rainwari Srinagar. Incriminating documents were seized during searches.
The investigation of the case is in progress.