Stealing Money meant for Children – what happened next?

The reader may remember this story circulated by CHRI a few months ago. By way of recollecting in brief this is what had happened –

Mr. Vishwajeet Maitee of Katni district in Madhya Pradesh had filed an RTI application seeking information about the rates at which first aid kits were procured for use in the teaching centres established under the Indus Child Labour Project. This project, aimed at rehabilitating rescued child labourers by providing them with education and vocational skills, is sponsored by the International Labour Organisation. This project is being implemented in five districts including Katni in MP.

The RTI intervention revealed gross overpricing of the medical kits amounting to a loss of more than Rs. 100,000 for the project. Subsequently spot checks conducted by Dr. Rakesh Ranjan of Sandhan, Katni as to the contents of these kits revealed that the supplies were of poor quality.

While this story was being read and discussed in cyberspace, Dr. Rakesh Ranjan decided to take the matter right up to the ILO. He wrote to the concerned officers at ILO attaching copies of all documents and bills collected as evidence. The project managers wrote back to the District Collector Katni requesting an inquiry into the matter. The Collector issued a show cause notice to the Project Director of Indus based in Katni. Subsequent proceedings led to the recovery of Rs. 80,000/- from the supplier. A small victory against corruption indeed.

The supplier contends in his defence that he has to pay bribes in order to secure a supply contract in his favour despite a competitive bidding process followed by the public authorities. Hence the overpricing of the medical kits. RTI activists in MP are now formulating strategies to unmask corrupt officials. This is a hard task as very often favours given to officials do not leave a paper trail.

But there’s more on RTI interventions relating to the Indus Project coming in our next despatch.

Compiled by Venkatesh Nayak for CHRI, New Delhi.

(Mr. Vishwajeet Maitee is an active member of the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan. Dr. Rakesh Ranjan runs Sandhan - an NGO based in Katni and coordinates the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikaar Abhiyan a state-wide network of CSOs and activists involved in public education, advocacy and monitoring of the RTI Act. Dr. Ranjan also collaborates with CHRI's Access to Information Programme.)

Stealing Money meant for Children

The Madhya Pradesh State Government runs the Indus Child Labor Project funded by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The main aim of this project is to provide primary education to erstwhile child labourers. It also provides for their professional skill development. This three-year project is being implemented in five districts namely, Katni, Jabalpur, Mandla, Satna and Sagar since January 2004.

Indus Project is implemented through a registered society - National Child Labour Project (NCLP) which receives monies from ILO through the State Government and makes disbursements. The District Collector is the President of NCLP and the District Labour Officer is its secretary. Five Project Directors are appointed for overseeing the execution of the project. In Katni district alone a sum of Rs 31,80,750 has been earmarked for the execution of this project.

Rumours about corruption in the implementation of Indus Project have existed since its inception. But citizens had no means of proving the same as they did not have access to any documentation before the central RTI Act came into force. MP had passed its own RTI Act in 2002 but it was not implemented as the rules had not been made yet. When citizens tried to apply for information under the Departmental RTI orders issued by the State Government in 1997, information was denied on the ground that these orders did not apply to UN sponsored projects.

An RTI activist working in MP along with the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan, got to know of the widespread corruption in the Indus project. He decided to file an application under the RTI Act to find out the truth.

He filed his application with the PIO of the Indus Project Office in Katni on December 7, 2005. He asked for the following information -

1) The number of first aid kits bought for Teaching Centres being run under the Project in Katni;

2) The rate at which the kits were bought

3) An inventory of the contents of the kit

4) A copy of the proactive disclosure under Sec 4(1)(b).

He received the information within 17 days after payment of additional fees. The Public Information Officer informed him in writing that 40 first aid kits were bought at the rate of Rs. 3,500/- per kit. These kits were bought in August 2005 and supplied to 40 Training Centres in Katni in September. This data alone did not reveal any evidence of corruption.

He decided to ascertain the prevalent market rates for the first aid kit. He sought quotations from the local distributors of three companies (one Indian and two multinational) which sold similar kits. The quotations received were as follows -

Paras Pharmaceuticals (Indore based company) - Rs. 760/-

Alembic Pharmaceuticals (olkata based MNC) - Rs. 930/-

Glaxo Smithkline Beecham (another well known MNC) - Rs. 970/-

The implementing agency spent Rs. 1,40,000/- for buying 40 kits @ Rs. 3,500/- per kit through an open tender process where the contract for supply is awarded to the lowest bidder. Had the agency bought the kits from the open market from the most expensive distributor - Glaxo - it would have had to spend only Rs. 38,800/- It is crystal clear - somebody has pocketed more than one lakh rupees in the procurement process. There are 200 Indus Teaching Centres in MP. If corruption in procurement is the prevalent norm in all five districts the scandal could run into several lakhs of rupees.

Dr. Rakesh Ranjan of Sandhan Katni who is also the Coordinator of the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan decided to investigate the matter further. Along with a journalist from Dainik Jagran, he visited 10 Teaching Centres to check the kits on the spot. They were astonished to find that noe of the kits displayed any company logo. In three centres the kits were found to be empty and the contents of seven kits in other centres were of cheaper quality than that mentioned in the quality specifications. This scandal was highlighted in the local newspapers. But no action has been initiated by the district administration so far. Dr. Ranjan will be sending a complaint along with documentation of his findings to ILO and the vigilance authorities of MP Government.

Some people feel no shame or remorse for stealing money meant for underprivileged children.

Compiled by Venkatesh Nayak for CHRI, New Delhi.

(Dr. Rakesh Ranjan runs Sandhan - an NGO based in Katni and coordinates the Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikaar Abhiyan a state-wide network of CSOs and activists involved in public education, advocacy and monitoring of the RTI Act. Dr. Ranjan also collaborates with CHRI's Access to Information Programme.)