ET: National Highway to corruption?: January 03, 2011

The CVC has served questionnaires to the top brass of NHAI involved in the selection process for deputy general manager (technical) posts. The officials have been asked to explain the selection process in detail and how the names of candidates were finalised. The step has been taken in the wake of an inquiry report submitted by NHAI Chief Vigilance Officer Aloke Prasad in which he questioned the entire selection process. Sources said questionnaires have been served to all five members of the selection committee, including former NHAI chairman Brijeshwar Singh who retired on Friday last, and the administration department that supervised the screening and selection process.

The NHAI had advertised to recruit 87 people for this post in January, with February 10 being the last date for receiving applications. A screening committee finalised a list of 147 “provisionally eligible” candidates. They were called for interviews from March 16 to 18. A selection committee was formed under former NHAI chairman Brijeshwar Singh to select the candidates. This comprised member (administration) Rajiv Yadav, the then member (projects) SI Patel, General Manager (Technical) MPS Rana and a representative of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Chief Engineer KC Verkayachan.

The committee interviewed candidates and selected 115 people in April. NHAI chairman, however, received several complaints and asked the then chief vigilance officer R Mukundan to investigate the case. The preliminary report shows that candidates who were neither cleared by screening committee nor appeared for the interview have been selected.

According to the vigilance report, Tamil Nadu’s SS Selvaraj, a selected candidate who has got an appointment letter too, had not attended the interview. When interrogated by NHAI vigilance officers, Selvaraj admitted that he had taken an early morning flight out of Delhi on March 18, the very day he has been shown to have attended the interview.

Similar cases have been reported to the CVC by the NHAI. Many officers were late in sending their applications, but they were still considered. Another officer, who had to rush back to his hometown after he got the news of his father’s death, could not appear for the interview, but was still selected.

A report sent to the CVC mentions that separate clearances were sought for a few candidates whose names were not put up before the screening committee. The vigilance report pointed out that candidates such as AV Rao, M Sailja, T Srinivas, VAK Padmanabha Rao and P Ramesh Reddy were allegedly interviewed and selected, but there were no signatures in the attendance sheet to prove that they actually attended the interview. The vigilance report also observed that there were candidates like S Vardaraju who have proof that they attended the interview but their names figure nowhere — neither on the list of successful candidates nor on the list of unsuccessful applicants.

The vigilance report also pointed out that the NHAI did not find whether the candidates have any vigilance cases or disciplinary proceedings against them — a must under recruitment rules. Out of 10 candidates from Maharashtra Public Works Department (PWD), three — JS Govindrao, AAA Prannath and PH Holey — were found to have vigilance inquiries against them. A former NHAI official CMR Mathur, who had been repatriated to parent cadre after being involved in two vigilance cases where penalties were imposed, was selected without any checks or vigilance clearance.

* NHAI Chief Vigilance Officer Aloke Prasad has questioned the entire selection process