“A five-member team has been formed under the leadership of Ganesh Dhakal, joint secretary at Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS), to investigate deeper into the case,” said a senior government source.
The NOC board last week had suspected depot chief Dinesh Yadav and his deputy Prakash Sharma after its internal investigation committee reckoned them of embezzling stock and pocketing about Rs 30 million in the name of ´circumstance-led increment in technical loss´.
The probe team has been assigned to probe deeper into the case and also ascertain situation at other depots as well.
“It will identify ways to streamline NOC´s depot operations, particularly matters related to technical loss, and make recommendations to plug leakages happening in the name of technical loss within a month,” said the source.
Technical loss in petroleum trade is unavoidable, but in this proper case at Amlekhgunj, Yadav and his deputy had inflicted 50 percent higher loss than the permitted limit in a year, which in monetary term was worth Rs 30 million.
NOC´s internal probe team had also identified them of stealing fuel and reporting the loss as rise in technical loss to the head office.
However, the senior MoCS official preferred not to talk about the fact that both Yadav and Sharma, who earlier faced action from the board for adulteration of fuel at Pokhara depot, were appointed at the depot on direct instruction of Commerce Minister Rajendra Mahato. He also did not comment on NOC not taking action against them before Yadav had differences with the Minister.
“All I can say is, we want to streamline operations so that anomalies at depot could be checked. Once that´s done, I think all these issues of nexus and vested interest will be addressed,” said the source.
As for the case in Amlekhgunj, NOC says Yadav and his team, during the period of a year, raised technical loss of petrol at the depot to 0.8 percent (of total volume of oil handled by the depot) 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-third of oil imports, it generates huge money. Because of this fact, top NOC management, ministry officials and ministers take special interest in deputing employees close to them at the depot.
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