The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has found that the top management of the Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation (KSCDC) had connived with a private cashew supplier “with doubtful credentials” to defraud the government of at least Rs.2.9 crore in 2015.
The agency has named R. Chandrasekharan, former chairman, KSCDC; K.A. Ratheesh, former managing director; Jaimon Joseph, owner of M/s J.M.J. Traders; and S. Bhuvanachandran, Assistant Manager, M/s Geo-Chem Laboratories as the main suspects.
The VACB’s case was that the KSCDC had procured raw cashew at the rate of Rs.117 a kg during the “crop season” in 2015 while private cashew factories procured it for less than Rs.107 a kg.
The agency has accused Mr. Bhuvanachandran of having “exaggerated the quantity and quality of the procured cashew without proper physical examination and cutting test with the intent to cheat the Kerala government.” It also saw a criminal conspiracy behind the controversial procurement process and said the “wrongful loss to the government” had caused a corresponding gain to the suspects.
The Vigilance inquiry has also turned the spotlight on the inherent flaws in the KSCDC’s cashew procurement process that has facilitated big-ticket corruption over the past five years.
Cartel formation
The KSCDC had procured 80 per cent of its raw material from M/s J.M.J. Traders. In some tenders, only the suspect firm had participated. It pointed to “a cartel formation.” The firm won the contract even without producing the mandatory “stock certificate” or “bank credibility certificate” to show it had capacity to meet the raw material demand. The “improper selection” of the private laboratory as stock surveyor was part of the suspected conspiracy. It had caused “malpractices” in the assessment of the quantity and quality of raw stock.
Dy.SP B. Radhakrishna Pillai and Inspector P. Jyothi Kumar inquired the case.
