Firm forges certificate to bag tenders, dept to take action

Vikram Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 11

A company in Jammu, which does not possess the PSARA (Private Security Agencies Regulation Act) certificate, is manipulating government tenders to take up works in various departments, including the public health engineering (PHE), public works department and the health department.

The documents of a company named Unique Sanitation and Outsourcing Services, Gadigarh, Airport, which are in possession of The Tribune, reveal that it has forged the signatures of the PSARA issuing authority and attached the documents with different tenders in the PHE, Mechanical Division, Udhampur, and at the Government College of Engineering and Technology, Jammu.

The Private Security Agencies Regulation Act (PSARA), 2005, Ministry of Home Affairs, issues a certificate to the contract companies which provide private security services to various agencies and government departments.There is a binding with the agencies/government departments requiring private security services to advertise for tenders for such requirements to seek the PSARA certificate from the applicants.The Jammu-based company, which had applied for a tender advertised by the PHE, Mechanical Division, Udhampur, and the Government College of Engineering and Technology, Jammu, had attached a certificate which was testified fake by the Home Affairs Department, Jammu.

“I have come across such fraud committed by the said company which has forged my signatures on the certificate and the complaint has reached the Home Affairs Department. The department is taking cognisance of the matter and action will soon be taken against it,” said Muzzafar Ahmed Wani, Under Secretary, Home Department.

He said the department had only issued 54 PSARA certificates to various J&K contract companies in which Unique Sanitation and Outsourcing Services, Gadigarh, did not appear.

The document with The Tribune reveals that the fake PSARA certificate issued to the company bears the serial No. as Home/PSARA/01/2019/75, while the last number issued by the Home Affairs Department is 54.Besides, the date of issue of the certificate is mentioned as October 2, 2019, which is a national holiday, Gandhi Jayanti.The proprietor of Unique Sanitation and Outsourcing Services, Ram Sharma, refused to talk.

Chief Accounts Officer, Medical College, Rajouri, Qamar Rehman said since the said company had attached the PSARA certificate for tendering of requirements in the Medical College, any document found fake would be challenged.