NEW DELHI: In a significant turn of events, the Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) has filed an FIR against former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and former PWD minister Satyendra Jain in relation to a huge corruption case involving the construction of school classrooms during the tenure of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. The scam is said to be related to financial misappropriations worth Rs 2,000 crore in the construction of 12,748 classrooms in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, the officials informed on Wednesday.
According to the ACB, the classrooms built under the Semi-Permanent Structure (SPS) model, which was to last 30 years, were constructed at the same cost as permanent RCC buildings with a 75-year life. “It seems there was no cost savings in using the SPS model, and that raises serious questions about the rationale behind this choice,” Joint Commissioner of Police (ACB) Madhur Verma said.
The complaint, which was originally brought by BJP Delhi leaders Harish Khurana, MLA Kapil Mishra, and Neelkanth Bakshi, claimed that classrooms were built at an overpriced rate of Rs 24.86 lakh per unit, while the estimated market rate for similar construction is approximately Rs 5 lakh. The reported total expenditure is Rs 2,892 crore, ACB Chief Verma said.
Adding further Madhur Verma said that, it has come to light that the work was contracted to 34 contractors, some of whom reportedly had connections to the Aam Aadmi Party. Grave abuses of government fiscal rules were found during the investigation, such as granting contracts without tendering and increasing contract values by 17 percent to 90 percent after award, largely because of richer specifications being adopted. Interestingly, in five schools, projects worth Rs 42.5 crore were completed without new tenders, violating Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) guidelines.
Perhaps the most incriminating finding was from a February 17, 2020, report by the Chief Technical Examiner of the CVC. The report pointed to several irregularities in planning, tendering, and execution of the construction work. But the report was purportedly suppressed for almost three years.
“In the face of the finance expenditure committee’s instruction in FY 2015-16 to complete the project by June 2016 and without any chance of cost overruns, no project was completed on time,” the ACB said in its statement. The estimated cost per square foot of the SPS buildings—Rs 2,292—was hardly different from that of permanent model schools (Rs 2,044–2,416), eliminating any financial logic in deciding to go ahead with SPS.”
ACB has filed a case under Section 13(1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) read with Sections 409 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code after due approval under Section 17-A of the POC Act from the concerned authority. A thorough probe is currently ongoing to identify the scope of the conspiracy and determine the roles and responsibilities of all the participants involved, including other contractors and government officials.