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"3. Article of Charges The article of charges framed against Shri Dr. S.P. Ram, Executive Director, NSFDC, New Delhi.
Article of charge-I:
Dr. S.P. Ram while functioning as the Executive Director and a Member of the Investment Committee, National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC) during the period June 1997 to September 1999, took reckless and unsound commercial decisions by investing a total amount of Rs.15.00 crore of the NSFDC in a sinking company Punjab Wireless System Ltd. (PWSL), as a result a huge amount of Rs.15.00 crore of the surplus funds of the NSFDC was lost. Dr. S.P. Ram by his above acts filed to maintain absolute integrity devotion to duty, committed the acts unbecoming of a public servant failed to ensure the integrity and devotion to duty of the employees under his control and authority, acted in a manner prejudicial to the interests of the Corporation caused neglect of work or negligence in the performance of duty and thus contravened Rules 4.1(i), 4.1(ii), 4.1(iii), 4.2, 5.5, 5.9 and 5.30 of the NSFDC Conduct, Discipline and Appellate Rules, 1990. Article of charge-II:
Besides causing the specific loss of Rs.15.00 crore of the NSFDC's surplus funds in the Punjab Wireless Systems Ltd. Dr. S.P. Ram Executive Director being a Member of the NSFDC Investment Committee caused loss of a substantial amount of interest to the NSFDC by delayed investments of the NSFDC's surplus funds, during the period September 1996 to March 2001 when amounts exceeding Rs.5.00 crore were kept uninvested beyond 15 days on account of which, the NSFDC lost a substantial amount of interest which it could have earned by investing its surplus funds in short term deposits during the said period. Being ED and Member of the Investment Committee, Dr. S.P. Ram did not take due care to make proper utilization of the Corporation's surplus funds by investing these funds in short term deposits and thereby earning income for the Corporation by way of interest on these investments.

5. The case of the department is mentioned in paras 4.1 to 4.7 of the enquiry officer's report dated 30.7.2004, and which paras read as under:-

"4.1 PO has first given background of NSFDC and position of various officers including COs.
4.2 Thereafter PO clarified that surplus funds of the Corporation (NSFDC) which are not immediately required for disbursement, are deposited by the Corporation as per the Department of Public Enterprise (DPE) guidelines. In this context, the DPE, Government of India has issued the following Circulars/Office Memoranda:
and "extension of repayment dates of these loans" time and again. The PWSL's requests for "roll over" and "extension in the repayment period"

were acceded to by the Investment Committee upto 25.9.99. Ultimately, the four post-dated cheques dated 25.9.99 and 30.9.99 respectively for a total sum of Rs.15.00 crore of the PWSL (as given by it to the NSFDC towards the purported discharge of its liability to repay the said debit of Rs.15.00 crore) were presented by the NSFDC for encashment in the bank. However, all the above cheques got bounced and dishonoured for the reasons "exceeds arrangements" due to insufficiency of funds in the PWSL's bank account. 4.4 PO further mentioned that NSFDC filed criminal proceedings (on 3-12-1999] and winding up petition [on 2-11-2000] against the PWSL under the provisions of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 and the Companies Act, 1956 respectively to recover its funds. However, the funds of the Corporation have not been recovered from the PWSL till date. 4.5 PO emphasized that a critical observation was made by the Statutory Auditors of the NSFDC in their Audit Report for the year 2000-01 that the above amount is doubtful of recovery from the PWSL as the said Company could not fulfil its obligations towards the repayment of the principal amount as well as the interest accrued thereon. The above audit observation was discussed by the Members/Shareholders of the NSFDC in the 12th Annual General Meeting of the Corporation held on 28.9.2001. Thereafter, the administrative Ministry of the Corporation [i.e., the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MOSJ&E)]. vide its letter dated 9.10.2001 communicated that Rs.15.00 crore deposited by the NSFDC with the PWSL appear to have become bad and doubtful and directed the CMD, NSFDC to take action (i) to realize the amount and (ii) to fix the responsibility on officers responsible for the lapses. 4.6 PO mentioned that in compliance of the above directions of the Government, necessary investigations were carried out in the matter, which revealed facts of omissions and commissions against the NSFDC officials namely, Dr S.P. Ram (ED, NSFDC), Shri S.S. Nayagam (Ex.DGM(Finance), NSFDC) and Shri Nand Kishore (Senior Manager, NSFDC). On the basis of findings of the investigation, two no. Articles of Charges were framed against the said officials vide Memoranda No.NSFDC/VIG/51/2003/4394; NSFDC/VIG/52/2003/4395 and NSFDC/VIG/53/2003/4396 dated 28.10.2003 and PO mentioned about article of charges against three officials.