Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Jan 3: The Jammu and Kashmir Small Scale Industries Development Corporation Limited (SICOP) is bleeding State exchequer by supplying furniture, furnishing and other items to Government departments at exorbitant rates.
The selling of furniture at exorbitant rates by the SICOP to the Government departments came to lime light after purchasing committee of Srinagar District and Sessions Court purchased the same furniture at almost half the rates as was quoted by the Corporation.
The District Court in Srinagar suffered major damages in September floods and had to procure furniture and furnishing. The court buildings, furniture and furnishing were damaged in the floods and the court had to be shifted to Bemina till the court complex at Tengpora in Batmaloo is ready.
Sources said that the court had only Rs 10 lakh at its disposal to purchase the furniture and furnishing items for the temporary court complex at Bemina.
The court approached the SICOP to procure furniture and sources said that corporation quoted around Rs 4600 per wooden chair to the District and Sessions Court Srinagar. The court approached the same dealer which is supplying the furniture to SICOP and struck a deal at Rs 2600 per chair.
Sources said that the court then purchased 250 wooden chairs, 60 tables, 250 chairs and 50 tables for Bar, 50 benches, 15 officer chairs and 15 officer tables besides runners for around Rs 10 lakh from the SICOP dealer. The corporation was providing them only 250 wooden chairs for Rs 11.5 lakh.
Sources said that the modus operandi adopted by the SICOP is that they get inflated bills from the dealers and then add 5 percent commission to it. The excess billed amount is then shared by the SICOP authorities and the dealer mutually.
They said that the Government departments prefer the purchases from the SICOP as they don’t face audit. The SICOP is the Government approved agency for supplying furniture and other items to the Government departments.
Every year various Government departments make purchases worth crores of rupees from SICOP at exorbitant rates and State faces crores of rupees losses annually due to corporation-dealer nexus.
The Managing Director SICOP R L Tikoo, however, denied that the Corporation is providing furniture to the Government departments at exorbitant rates. He said that they only add 5 percent service charges to the dealer rates.
Tikoo, when asked about the purchases made by the court through the same dealer at lower prices, said: “There must be difference in the quality of the furniture. I don’t think there might be such a huge difference in rates”.
The MD said: “We are going through three processes. There is a divisional level price fixation committee that fixes price. It has seven members and they give their assessment report. Then there is another committee at State level called State Level Price Fixation Committee.”
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