The constitutional anti-corruption watchdog has already taken over the case and started taking statements from staffers involved in wrongdoings, a board member of NOC, told myrepublica.com. [break]
Earlier, NOC management had held a series of talks with the anti-graft body, hoping to formulate ´rational formula´ to recoup the loss amount among 21 staffers ranking from depot chief to helpers.
“We decided to handover the case to CIAA for further action as we could not come up with fair formula,” NOC chief Digambhar Jha said.
Officials stated that the decision to handover the case to CIAA was taken because NOC -- in the absence of fair formula -- feared it might not be able to defend its action if the guilty staffers moved the court, thereby getting the action reversed.
The NOC board´s decision in January to recover the loss amount from corrupt officials was first major decision of its type. Hence, there is no specific base to quantify the loss amount for each staff.
However, sources said that it is not the sole reason behind handing over the case to CIAA. A source said that the management had been receiving strong resistance from almost all senior staffers and junior staffs had even threatened of non-cooperation movement if the decision was implemented.
“The nexus of corruption in NOC is deep-rooted and warnings from staffers can´t be ignored. Hence, by handing over the case to the CIAA, the management -- sandwiched between the board and employees -- has chosen to take a safer path,” said the source.
The NOC board had asked the management to take strong action against all the staffers of Amlekhgunj depot after a probe team of Ministry of Supplies confirmed them of stealing oil and getting away by reporting it as ´technical loss´.
Technical loss, which includes handling loss and shrinkage, is unavoidable in petroleum business, but in the given case the chief of Amlekhgunj and his deputy had inflicted 50 percent higher loss than the permitted limit over the span of a 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 limit.
Following this revelation, NOC had fired two contract workers and suspended 21 permanent staffs deputed to man the depot. NOC also formed an investigation committee to dig out possible anomaly in all its depots for the period 10 years.
“It is because of this further investigations that almost all senior officials have grouped together, pressing the management not to take action, because they had manned depots at one time or other,” said the source.
milan@myrepublica.com
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