J&K Anti Corruption Bureau registers case against private firm, 3 ex-bank officials for not following tendering norms

Srinagar: “The ACB has registered an FIR against Sahil Vora and Rishabh Vora, directors, SILA Solutions Pvt Ltd, on the allegation that officials of J-K Bank awarded tenders of housekeeping to a Mumbai-based company by not following the proper tendering norms that led to the losses to the tune of Rs 6.29 crore to the bank from the date of award of contract,” an official spokesperson said.

 It inclues three former bank officials, including then chairman Parvaiz Ahmad(Now Retired), on the allegations of causing Rs 6.29 core loss to the bank by not following tendering rules.
In its FIR, the ACB has also named  other two Surjeet Singh Seghal, the then executive president J-K Bank (now retired),  Feroz Ahmad, the then assistant vice president, he said.
The spokesperson said the case pertains to allotment of tenders for housekeeping of off site ATMs to SILA Solutions by not following proper tendering norms as provided the contract to the said firm despite not falling into the criteria of any such allotment.
“Earlier, a verification was conducted by the Anti Corruption Bureau into the matter wherein it was revealed that J-K Bank with headquarters at Srinagar came out with a pan-India tender for housekeeping services in 2015.
“J-K Bank officials in contravention of tender conditions negotiated the rates with SILA Solutions and the company was awarded the tender in gross violation of the General Financial Rules (GFR),” the spokesperson said.
The contract of SILA Solutions, amongst other conditions, included ATM cleaning and deployment of janitors.
“The additional management fee awarded to SILA Solutions by J-K Bank was not part of the original tender. The loss on the account of the tender has worked out to be over Rs 6 crores. The loss is likely to go up as the investigation progresses,” he added.
The spokesperson said in this connection, ACB Srinagar conducted searches on September 17 at the residential house of Feroz Ahmad, the then assistant vice president J-K Bank, in Kathidarwaza area of the city and recovered incriminating documents (AGENCIES)