Moneylife: Pune: Saturday, August 12, 2017.
Misuse of
Armed Forces Flag Day Fund, money for which is annually collected from
civilians for the benefit of widows of soldiers, of disabled soldiers, sailors,
airmen, ex-servicemen and their dependents, as confirmed by the audit report,
has apparently resulted in profiteering for vested interest. Lack of
transparency in the use of these public funds, donated by government employees
and ex-servicemen on 7th December, besides voluntary donations throughout the
year, has exasperated activists who are denied information under the Right to
Information (RTI) Act.
The Army Flag
Fund has two kinds of offices: one, District Sainik Welfare Office spread over
all districts that comes under the State Sainik Welfare Office, and Maharashtra
Ex Servicemen Corp Ltd (MESCO), which was established in 2002 to provide large
scale employment to the ex-servicemen in their home state. MESCO is
headquartered in Pune.
It is also
pertinent to mention here that that the usage of Armed Forces Flag Day Fund is
divided into two categories: Benevolent Fund, for giving grants for
ex-servicemen for their children’s education, marriages and so on, and the
Special Fund, used for the upkeep of estates of various Departments of Zilla
Sainik Welfare (ZSW), like hostels for children of ex-servicemen and
guesthouses. The proposer of the fund disbursement is the ZSW officer. The
audit report in question is for the Pune’s ZSW and MESCO.
As per the
audit report, the District Sainik Welfare office (which disburses the funds)
has been charged with indulging in irregular expenditure like purchase of
vehicles, liquor served at an official function, an Air Force rally and so on.
And where works are outsourced by MESCO
there are issues like non-recovery of penalties from contractors, full payments
to contractors without completion of work, not following tender procedure while
giving out contracts, construction and civil works without administrative
approval or without a demand raised by the zilla sainik welfare officer, which
is mandatory.
In order to
procure information of the alleged financial irregularities of both the
entities, Sangramsinh Gaikwad has filed 22 applications under RTI over the past
two years. The information sought was regarding various constructions. MESCO’s
Public Information Officer (PIO) replied that the information comprises 42,000
odd pages, copies of tender notices and misuse of Army Flag Funds and hence
Gaikwad should come for inspection of files and ask for copies of specific
pages.
However, says Gaikwad, “When we went there and were ready to pay the money accordingly, verbally the PIO denied the copies stating that the Director has ordered so. We again wrote a letter to PIO asking him to give in writing that the Director has ordered not to supply information under RTI. Since he did not reply, we filed First Appeal. The Appellate Authority gave vague reasons for denial of information after which we have filed Second Appeal with Pune Division’s Information Commissioner and the matter has been pending there since the last six months.”
However, says Gaikwad, “When we went there and were ready to pay the money accordingly, verbally the PIO denied the copies stating that the Director has ordered so. We again wrote a letter to PIO asking him to give in writing that the Director has ordered not to supply information under RTI. Since he did not reply, we filed First Appeal. The Appellate Authority gave vague reasons for denial of information after which we have filed Second Appeal with Pune Division’s Information Commissioner and the matter has been pending there since the last six months.”
The director
who is allegedly stalling information is MESCO’s managing director, Colonel
Suhas Jatkar (Retd), who also hold the dual post as Director of State Sainik
Welfare office and Managing Director of MESCO. Official complaints have been
made against him to the Maharashtra Chief Minister as well as the Prime
Minister’s Office (PMO), due to matters arising out of his conflict of interest
as he holds both the offices. This, despite a notification way back in 2003
that there should be two separate heads for both these outfits.
Alleges
Gaikwad, “While the establishment of MESCO was to primarily recruit and provide
security jobs for ex-servicemen, when Col Jatkar became Director of the State
Sainik Welfare office, he gave a loan from Flag Day Fund to MESCO to start an
industrial park for giving it to ex-servicemen to start their outfits but there
was no such provision for this. The park was ready but it did not get a
favourable response. So this Rs20 lakh diversion was unauthorised as there is
no provision to give such loans to a state owned corporation but the loans
could be given to any ESM Organisation for specific activity. This loan has
neither been returned nor the Flag Day Fund been paid interest on it. And since
then, there have been many more irregularities, mostly in construction, because
of which I am using RTI.”
“Allegations
of siphoning of funds from ZSWs for contracts for construction through MESCO,
which mostly are sub-contracted to private entities, are beyond the rules of
use of Flag Day fund. There is no reason why Public Works Department (PWD)
could not be used as a contractor and thus save money. Also, there are
allegations that constructions are done without the respective Zilla Sainik
Officer, proposing them. These irregularities have been reflected in the audit
report,” he added.
In the
meanwhile, Commander Ravindra Pathak (retd), who has been writing fervently to
various authorities, has recently shot off a complaint to the Prime Minister’s
Office, against Col Jatkar, stating that the AG report has raised many
observations with regard to misuse of funds. The PMO, through the Kendriya
Saink Board, has asked the Chief Secretary to investigate but to date there has
been no action.
What is
The Armed Forces Flag Day?
The Armed
Forces Flag Day or the Flag Day of India is a day dedicated towards collection
of funds from people of India for the welfare of the Indian Armed Forces
personnel. It has been observed annually in India on 7th December since 1949.
Over the years, it has become a tradition to commemorate this day as an honour
to the soldiers, airmen and sailors of India.
Flag Day
gains more significance as it considers that it is the responsibility of the
civilian population of India to take care of the families and dependents of the
armed forces personnel who fight for the country. Like the Kendriya Sainik
Board at the Centre, the Rajya/Zila Sainik Boards are responsible for policy
formulation and implementation of resettlement and welfare schemes for Ex-Servicemen,
widows and their dependents residing in their respective States / UTs /
Districts. To assist the Central Government in this regard, there are 32 Rajya
Sainik Boards and 392 Zila Sainik Boards in the country.
The Armed
Forces Flag Day addresses and collects funds for three important aspects of
defence services Rehabilitation of battle casualties, Welfare of those in
service and their families, and resettlement and welfare of ex-servicemen and
their families.
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