Vendors of the state-run Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation (KEONICS) have petitioned with President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot seeking permission to be euthanised (mercy killing), alleging harassment by state IT-BT Minister Priyank Kharge and KEONICS chairman Sharath Bachegowda over pending bills worth crores.
In their letter, the Keonics Empanelled Vendors Welfare Association has accused the minister and the chairman of withholding payment of pending bills over the past 18 months and sought mercy killing stating nearly 6,000 families are distressed by this apathy.
“The minister has stalled all payments citing inquiry. The former CEO had demanded 12 per cent commission (bribe) to clear the bills and withheld all payments when the vendors refused to bribe him. Many vendors are under huge debt now, said Vasant Bangera, president of the association that represents 500-odd small-scale industries.
However, Kharge refuted the allegations and stated that the vendors are begging for mercy today due to the corruption of the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government, and former chief ministers B.S. Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai, and previous IT minister Ashwath Narayan were to be blamed for the sorry plight of vendors.
“After the Congress government came to power, it had issued orders for 1,200 procurements worth Rs 1,544 crore. The Comptroller Auditor General (CAG), in its test audit, examined 45 procurements and found illegalities worth Rs 455 crore. So, we constituted a committee headed by BMRC managing director M. Maheshwar Rao to probe into the irregularities. Our government chose to take a tough stand against corruption. But the corrupt always find transparency to be harassment,” said Kharge.
“It is our duty to provide justice to taxpayers. The Auditor General's report has mentioned violations worth Rs 455 crore, including 45 objections. These should be investigated thoroughly,” said Sharath Bachegowda.
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The minister stated that the audit had found several violations like non-conduct of third-party inspections for the goods and services provided by the company to various government departments, boards and corporations, use of bogus third parties, violation of contract terms, payment irregularities, adoption of wrong base rates, empanelment violations, non-appointment of evaluation committees for the evaluation of Expression of Interest (EOI) submitted by bidders, procurement of non-IT related supplies in violation of the KTTP Act, non-adoption of standard tender documents, splitting of tenders, non-collection of performance security in contracts, non-collection of Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) from bidders, evasion of GST and issuing duplicate challans.
“Our priority is to ensure Keonics complies with all the regulatory provisions and applicable laws. We are examining the vendors’ appeals for payments on priority and in light of audit observations. We have taken steps for stricter compliance with the directions from the finance department. The primary objective is to ensure that there is no loss to the government exchequer and to maintain public trust,” said Kharge.
Admitting there had been lapses in some transactions between 2018 and 2023, while complying with the 4G exemption order issued by the finance department (on March 3, 2023), Kharge said, “We have taken steps to rectify the lapses and started an open tender system to ensure greater competition and greater transparency. The Board of Directors is committed to running Keonics in a transparent manner, and any demand for payment without investigation would be illegal.”
