Rs 5.17-cr fake ad scam exposed

Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, January 22

The Local Bodies Department has detected the involvement of former Executive Officer (EO) of the Kartarpur Improvement Trust Jatinder Singh in the Rs 5.17-crore fake advertisement scam.

A committee set up by the department has come out with the findings of a preliminary report against the former EO, who was recently booked by the Vigilance Bureau in this regard.

The accused, Jatinder Singh, committed the fraud during his posting here from 2014-18. He allegedly siphoned off the money in the name of advertisement firms based at Pathankot and Gurdaspur and that too without calling any tenders.

As per the rules, tenders have to be called for any work costing above Rs 5,000. Even the trust chairman can make a payment of only up to Rs 10,000.

However, display advertisements regarding maintaining cleanliness and to popularise Sri Guru Arjan Dev Nagar Scheme in Kartarpur were reportedly booked in TV channels and newspapers of Himachal, Haryana, J&K and Uttarakhand.

Despite spending crores on advertisements for the scheme, only 19 of the 72 flats have been allotted so far. Construction work at 20 commercial sites was still pending.

The approved annual budget for the said period was Rs 72 crore. However, Rs 4.17 crore was spent on advertisements alone. An amount of Rs 1.9 crore was reportedly spent on scrolling advertisements on TV in 2015-16 and 2017-18 in violation of the norms.

Rs 1.13 crore was spent on insertions in newspapers, mostly based outside Punjab, through a Pathankot-based advertisement agency. Rs 1.19 crore was spent on flex boards. It has been found that quotations had not been called for most works.

During the same period, the accused had made payments to the tune of Rs 22.77 lakh without seeking any approval from the higher authorities. He prepared notings on his own and signed vouchers. Even the signatures of clerks and junior engineers concerned were not taken.

ADC (D)-cum-Trust Chairman Jasvir Singh said the inquiry report had been forwarded to Principal Secretary, Local Bodies, A Venu Prasad.

Prasad said, “Jatinder Singh is already facing suspension. A chargesheet will soon be filed against him. We will also recover the amount from the advertisement firms.”