Issuing a verdict on a case that was being investigated since two months ago, the board this week further instructed the management to immediately implement the decision by taking appropriate actions against them and forcing them to repay the amount that they embezzled through oil theft. [break]
Presently, NOC management has suspended 21 employees, including six officers, and fired three others working on contract basis at Amlekhgunj Depot on charges of their involvement in the anomaly.
"Stealing oil from depot by the depot in-charge and others is a grave crime. The management must end impunity and take action against them," the NOC board has said in its decision.
The board has asked the management to compel the depot chief and deputy chief to shoulder the major responsibility for the loss. And all other employees too have been asked to be a part of the lost amount.
"We have further directed the management to commission a study of undue oil loss at all NOC depots and punish all concerned depot chiefs, in case they are found to have inflicted undue loss to NOC in the past as well," a member of NOC board told myrepublica.com.
He noted that the implementation of the decision would be a tough task for the management given the resistance and furor it will receive from staffs. "But it is one tough action that must be implemented to fight corruption in the NOC," he said.
The decision from the board came after a high-level probe team of Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) reconfirmed wrongdoings by depot officials at Amlekhgunj.
The team had recommended strong actions against the then depot Chief Dinesh Yadav and his deputy Prakash Sharma for embezzling the stock along with 22 other staff who worked at the depot then.
"The employees of all levels were found engaged in the anomaly. They pocketed handsome money and tried to veil their wrongdoings by reporting unnatural rise in technical loss," the team had reported to the Ministry.
Technical loss in petroleum trade is unavoidable, but in this particular case at Amlekhgunj, Yadav and his staff had inflicted 50 percent higher loss than the permitted limit last year.
During the period, the depot´s technical loss for petrol had soared to 0.8 percent (of total volume of oil it handled) from 0.57 percent and diesel to 0.7 percent from 0.4 percent of the past.
The variation appears negligible, but since Amlekhgunj handles some two-thirds of oil imports, it generates huge money. Because of this fact, top NOC management, Ministry officials and Ministers take special interest in appointing staff close to them at the depot.
milan@myrepublica.com
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