The Centre for Policy Research (CPR) has been debarred by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) from conducting recruitment examinations for the authority for next three years, after the latter’s vigilance wing found irregularities in one of its biggest candidate selection processes conducted in 2012.
A separate probe by the Delhi Police is under way and its Crime Branch had filed an FIR earlier this year against CPR president Pratap Bhanu Mehta and others. When contacted, Mr. Mehta declined to comment and did not respond to a detailed questionnaire mailed to him. However, a source at the think tank said the probe in the matter began soon after the CPR asked for pending dues to the tune of around Rs. 50 lakh from the AAI for conducting the exams.
The CPR is a Delhi-based non-profit think tank, operational since 1973 for conducting research across various disciplines. The Centre had a cell that conducted exams for public sector recruitments for a fee that was used to fund its research. The AAI had outsourced the work of filling up 917 vacancies to CPR in 2012. The vacancies were at various levels in several departments of AAI including airport operation, economic planning, human resources, cargo, law and information technology.
The examination cell at the Centre has been closed down after it conducted recruitments for AAI.
This was one of the biggest recruitment drives at the AAI and all the applicants had to appear again for the tests after irregularities were foundby the authority.
Exam results tampered
AAI’s Directorate of Vigilance initiated an inquiry into the recruitment process for 20 posts of the IT department after the selection process was over and found that pre-determined candidates were selected through manipulation of the score obtained by them in the written test. The CPR was found guilty of malpractices in conducting the test and in October this year, the AAI decided to debar CPR from holding any further recruitment drive for the next three years. The irregularity caused operational inconvenience and “pecuniary loss” to the AAI has as it had to conduct fresh recruitment for all the posts through another agency.
“…you are guilty of malpractices as pointed out in the investigation done by the Directorate of Vigilance in conducting the written examination…and your conduct has not been above board. This has caused operational inconvenience and pecuniary loss to the Airports Authority of India and your conduct is questionable,” said a letter sent by AAI to Mr. Mehta on October 20 this year, reviewed by The Hindu .
Pre-determined candidates
The letter stated that a majority of the candidates selected for the posts were pre-determined candidates “by manipulation in the scores obtained by them in the written examination. The analysis of the results indicates that the marks of the written examination were manipulated to favour a set of candidates belonging to Delhi region, mostly belonging to Haryana or who have studied there.”
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