Press Trust Of India
Washington, July 07, 2010
Officials of Indian PSUs like BHEL and NTPC appear to be the beneficiaries of bribes that were doled out by a California-based valve company to bag lucrative contracts, mostly for tools used in the construction of power plants. Prominent among these Indian companies are Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, Maharashtra State Electricity Board, Haryana State Electricity Board, National Thermal Power Corporation and Bhilai Electric, according to documents submitted by the US Department of Justice before a US court.
It is possible that the details of the beneficiaries are listed in the sealed court documents, but no names were immediately known.
California-based Control Component Inc (CCI) on June 31, 2009, pleaded guilty before the US court to having committing bribery in 36 countries from 2003 to 2007.
India, besides China, the UAE and Qatar, are some of the major countries where Control Component Inc indulged in unfair practices to bag contracts.
According to court documents, the payments related to India were made between 2004 and 2007. Topping the list is the Sipat coal-fired power plant of NTPC, for which CCI paid a bribe of $163,449 in two installments to an official of a Moscow-based company, who has been identified as Vladimir Batenko in the documents submitted by the US Department of Justice before the US court.
On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice announced that it has extradited Flavio Ricotti, a former executive of CCI on charges of bribing foreign companies.
An Italian national, Ricotti, was arrested on February 14 in Frankfurt, Germany, and arrived in the United States on July 2.
The alleged bribe for the Sipat thermal power plant was paid in two installments. The first payment of $26,865 was made on November 29, 2005, from the company's Handelsbanken Bank account in Sweden to an account at Dresdner Bank in New York for the purpose of securing the contract for the Sipat thermal power plant.
The second payment of $136,584.98 was made in October, 2006, from the same Handelsbanken Bank account in Sweden to an account at the Baltic International bank in Latvia, the FBI alleges, for the purpose of making a corrupt payment to a Company 3 employee with regard to the Sipat thermal power plant in India, the DOJ said.
According to court documents, the CCI -- in two installments on November 6, 2006 and January 9, 2009 -- made a total payment of $69,012 to BHEL and MSEB.
BHEL officials are reported to be the beneficiaries in several other instances, but most of the amounts are less than $5,000.
In 2007, officials of the Bhilai Electricals are believed to have received $8,600, while those of HSEB received $15,802 through a transaction on July 7, 2007.
In addition, Spin Industries, J Mehta & Co and MSEB were the beneficiaries of another bribery transaction of $15,000 made by CCI on March 3, 2004.
However, the court papers are not clear, how many of these contracts were bagged by CCI and what was the value of the contracts it won.
The Department of Justice said CCI has admitted that from 2003 through 2007 it made approximately 236 corrupt payments in more than 30 countries, which resulted in net profits to the company of approximately $46.5 million from sales related to these corrupt payments.
NTPC denies
However, in a statement sent to Hindustan Times, NTPC has strongly objected to its name being taken in the news report. The NTPC said that they have not placed any direct order with the Control Component Inc for the Sipat Project. NTPC also said that it is not a party in the contract between any of the Manufacturers and its equipment suppliers i.e. the said party Control Component Inc (CCI).
US firm bribed Indian PSUs
Comment
Swiss Banks secrecy laws makes it it convenient for non- detection of the Money Laundering route. Bureaucrats and Politicians are the beneficiaries of all such ill gotten wealth transferred to foreign countries.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
RTI: Portal for knowledge and learning
The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that the RTI Act imposes new obligations on all stakeholders. The government is called upon to be more transparent and accountable in decision and policy making, and manage its records better. Addressing at the launch of “RTI Portal developed by Institute of Management in Government (IMG)” at Thiruvananthpuram (Kerala) today, he has said that the civil society is expected to be an informal clearing house for information to help common citizens understand and use this new instrumentality. This makes possible the participation of citizens in governance beyond elections.
Vice President launches RTI Portal Developed by IMG at Thiruvananthapuram
Institute of Management in Government (IMG) is the apex training institute of the Government of Kerala. It is situated in the heart of the capital city Thiruvananthapurm and operates from two training campuses, the Barton Hill training complex and the administrative/training complex. Strategically located in the heart of the city, it is at a stones throw from the State Secretariat and Legislative Assembly complex.
The Institute of Management in Government, Thiruvananthapuram was established as an autonomous body under the auspices of the Government of Kerala in 1981 with the objective of developing managerial skills, organisational abilities, leadership qualities and decision making skills among different categories of employees of Government, Private and Public sector.
e-Learning
As part of the RTI Knowledge Portal the Institute has initiated the work of preparing a bi-lingual e-learning module wherein any stakeholder including the government officials and the general public can register and get certified online. Trainers undergoing this course may have to qualify an additional chapter The contents have been organized in user friendly manner and there shall be interim quizzes and tests in each section and the learner can proceed to the subsequent chapter only after scoring 80% or above in each chapter. As part of this we also plan to create video lectures by setting up mechanism for lecture capturing in classroom and then creation and authoring of video lectures with course materials as well as the facility to archive and stream the synchronized videos on demand.
Please visit : rti.img.kerala.gov.in
RTI Index
RTI India Forum
Vice President launches RTI Portal Developed by IMG at Thiruvananthapuram
Institute of Management in Government (IMG) is the apex training institute of the Government of Kerala. It is situated in the heart of the capital city Thiruvananthapurm and operates from two training campuses, the Barton Hill training complex and the administrative/training complex. Strategically located in the heart of the city, it is at a stones throw from the State Secretariat and Legislative Assembly complex.
The Institute of Management in Government, Thiruvananthapuram was established as an autonomous body under the auspices of the Government of Kerala in 1981 with the objective of developing managerial skills, organisational abilities, leadership qualities and decision making skills among different categories of employees of Government, Private and Public sector.
e-Learning
As part of the RTI Knowledge Portal the Institute has initiated the work of preparing a bi-lingual e-learning module wherein any stakeholder including the government officials and the general public can register and get certified online. Trainers undergoing this course may have to qualify an additional chapter The contents have been organized in user friendly manner and there shall be interim quizzes and tests in each section and the learner can proceed to the subsequent chapter only after scoring 80% or above in each chapter. As part of this we also plan to create video lectures by setting up mechanism for lecture capturing in classroom and then creation and authoring of video lectures with course materials as well as the facility to archive and stream the synchronized videos on demand.
Please visit : rti.img.kerala.gov.in
RTI Index
RTI India Forum
IESM: Unite to fight injustice
EX-SERVICEMEN UNITY: IESM
Dear Veterans,
1. You will be glad to know that IESM is spreading its wings across the country by the day. The aim is to go down to the level of each village throughout the country. We are getting tremendous response from every where. ESM in large mumbers are volunteering to be part of various committees to work for the welfare of Defence Personnel both serving and retired and for getting them their due Justice. The Govt, ill advised by the bureaucracy is continuing to demonstrate negative attitude while dealing with Defence Personnel. This attitude of the Govt is also clearly reflected in their not adhering to the various recent judgements of Supreme Court, High Courts and Armed Forces Tribunals (AFTs) which have gone in favour of the Defence Personnel. Two months have passed since. The All Party Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence in written report on 07 May 2010 had strongly recommended the grant of OROP. The Govt by now should have been judicious enough to accept the recommendation of the Committee. The same has not been done so far.
2. I appeal to all ESM organizations throughout the country to associate themselves with the Indian Ex Servicemen Movement. Let us work out Common Minimum Programme (CMP) and action plan to get Justice to the Defence Forces. Let us give a strong push forward to Our Movement to make the Govt see reasons.
3. All state, district, city, tehsil, block convener are requested to constitute IESM committees and forward the details to the IESM HQ.
click here for more details
With Kind Regards,
Jai Hind
Yours Sincerely,
Maj Gen (Retd) Satbir Singh, SM
Vice Chairman Indian ESM Movement
No matter how different we may seem, veterans have much more to unite us than to divide us.
Related Post
Injustice to ESM by IESM Chairman Veteran Raj Kadyan
Dear Veterans,
1. You will be glad to know that IESM is spreading its wings across the country by the day. The aim is to go down to the level of each village throughout the country. We are getting tremendous response from every where. ESM in large mumbers are volunteering to be part of various committees to work for the welfare of Defence Personnel both serving and retired and for getting them their due Justice. The Govt, ill advised by the bureaucracy is continuing to demonstrate negative attitude while dealing with Defence Personnel. This attitude of the Govt is also clearly reflected in their not adhering to the various recent judgements of Supreme Court, High Courts and Armed Forces Tribunals (AFTs) which have gone in favour of the Defence Personnel. Two months have passed since. The All Party Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence in written report on 07 May 2010 had strongly recommended the grant of OROP. The Govt by now should have been judicious enough to accept the recommendation of the Committee. The same has not been done so far.
2. I appeal to all ESM organizations throughout the country to associate themselves with the Indian Ex Servicemen Movement. Let us work out Common Minimum Programme (CMP) and action plan to get Justice to the Defence Forces. Let us give a strong push forward to Our Movement to make the Govt see reasons.
3. All state, district, city, tehsil, block convener are requested to constitute IESM committees and forward the details to the IESM HQ.
click here for more details
With Kind Regards,
Jai Hind
Yours Sincerely,
Maj Gen (Retd) Satbir Singh, SM
Vice Chairman Indian ESM Movement
No matter how different we may seem, veterans have much more to unite us than to divide us.
Related Post
Injustice to ESM by IESM Chairman Veteran Raj Kadyan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
