Leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Tokheho Yepthomi on Thursday, made an explosive revelation when he revealed that a “new scam” had taken place in the DAN government involving huge amount of money in the lottery department.
Taking part in the discussions on the budget, Tokheho claimed that one distributor of the state lottery, M/s CAIRS owed the government of Nagaland a huge arrears of Rs.77 crore and that the matter was being heard in the court. The revelation stunned the treasury bench including senior bureaucrats in the gallery.
Tokheho said he was not sure if the cabinet ministers and others were also aware of the fact that M/s CAIRS has become “non-existent” after the alleged scam.
He disclosed, that when asked to settle the dues, M/s CAIRS had filed a counter affidavit that it did not owe the government of Nagaland any money by citing a supplementary order purportedly issued by the state government.
According to Tokheho, the cabinet okayed the department’s recommendation for M/s CAIRS after which it signed an MoU and obtained the order for organizing lottery draws.
However, he pointed out that the order was revised and another supplementary order issued to the M/s CAIRS by some bureaucrat, allegedly, without processing the file for obtaining cabinet approval.
He said the supplementary order cited, was not found in the lottery department and “non-existant in the office as well”. Tokheho went on to say that the scam was just the tip of the iceberg of similar cases where government revenues were leaked or siphoned off by some persons.
He further pointed out that in response to the tender floated by the lottery department for organizing lottery draws, the firm that made the lowest offer at Rs.15,000 per draw was accepted while the other that offered the government Rs.35,000 per draw was rejected.
Tokheho said the decision had caused huge loss to the state government and wanted to know whether such a decision was taken by the chief minister also in-charge of finance and whether the scam that surfaced was ever discussed in the cabinet.
He also demanded to know from the leader of the house (Chief minister) as to when did the cabinet decide to award the draw to M/s CAIRS and at what rate? Tokheho also demanded to know when was the supplementary order signed and who were the officers involved in signing it.
The CLP leaders also demanded to know whether the government has initiated any enquiry or order SIT probe before the scam was referred to the court and what was the current status of the case ? He also demanded to know what action has the government taken against those involved and if the officers were still in service or retired?
He claimed that acceptance of the lowest offer of Rs.15,000 and rejection of the highest offer of Rs.35,000 per draw by the lottery department (under the finance department) raised questions such as- how much share was offered to the minister-in-charge or the bureaucrat(s) per draw resulting in a huge loss to the state exchequer. Further he wanted to know if the decision was taken through a committee and subsequently referred to the cabinet and how many draws were held daily, weekly and monthly.
Meanwhile, it was learnt from official sources that the period of the scam pertained to the year 2013 and that a senior bureaucrat was allegedly involved in issuing the supplementary order favouring M/s CAIRS and that the order was not traceable in the finance department.
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