VIJAYAWADA: The State government late Tuesday night issued orders suspending N Sanjay, former Additional Director General of CID, and former Director General of AP State Disaster Response and Fire Services.
The IPS officer was charged with irregularities in tender process in violation of GO No 94, failure in the evaluation of PQBs and technical eligibility criteria, and making payment of Rs 1,19,03,600 for the SC & ST awareness programme to Kritvyap Technologies Private Limited, Hyderabad. This incurred a mere Rs 3,10,000 expenditure with the support of the Agreement Concluding Authority for the entire workshop, which led to the embezzlement of government funds to the tune of Rs 1,15,93,600.
He was also charged with failure to get the workshop conducted through the contracting agency, instead, CID officials conducted the entire workshop. As per the orders, the IPS officer while working as DG, AP State Disaster Response and Fire Services, floated tenders and shortlisted Sauthrika Technologies & Infra Pvt Ltd, Prasadampadu, for a bid of Rs 2,29,61,000 for the supply of AGNI-NOC web portal and hardware, and entered into an agreement on February 15, 2023.
Sauthrika Technologies requested payment of Rs 59,93,000 on February 22, 2023 (Rs 30,68,000 for 50% of the development of AGNI-NOC web portal and mobile app, and Rs 29,25,000 for the supply of 150 tablets for AGNI App usage). Sanjay sanctioned the payment order, and cheques were issued to the vendor on the same day.
A technical committee was constituted to review the progress of AGNI portal development, and in its report on April 28, 2023, it stated that the project was far from being considered implemented with only 14% of the work completed by then, making it difficult to consider the app as having begun.
The technical committee also stated that as per the agreement, the vendor was required to deliver the complete software within two months that is by April 15, 2023, from the date of the agreement. However, the vendor had not completed the work. Therefore, it is considered that the vendor failed to meet the deadline.
It was further observed that Sanjay procured eight Microsoft Surface Pro 8 and two Apple iPad Pro devices for FSOG-level officers of the AP Fire Department for the implementation of AGNI App using funds from the APFS filling station.
For the procurement of laptops and iPads, he neither invited tenders through e-procurement nor obtained competitive quotations from different vendors. The supply and delivery of laptops were entrusted to Sauthrika Technologies, and Rs 17,89,784 was paid to the vendor without any competitive price. The payment of Rs 17,89,784 for the procurement of 10 laptops at Rs 1,78,978 each was highly exorbitant and no bills were submitted for the same. Sanjay hurriedly made payment causing misappropriation of funds by abuse of power and breach of public trust.
During the investigation, various irregularities were found to have been committed by the senior IPS officer in the conduct of SC & ST awareness workshops. “The government after careful examination of the two Vigilance and Enforcement reports have concluded that N Sanjay is the primary accused in misuse of government funds, and it is necessary to place him under suspension pending inquiry,” the GO read.