Public Money misappropriated by the Orissa Chief Information Commissioner Mr.D.N.Padhi must be recovered from him before he formally exits his office
Misusing his office and authority as Chief Orissa Information Commissioner Mr.D.N.Padhi has swindled away at least Rs.2 crore 93 lakh and 50 thousand from Orissa's public exchequer in the name of organizing awareness programmes on RTI during last 5 years (Nov 2005 to Nov 2010). It is a matter of irony, that having misappropriated such a huge amount from tax-payers' money, he is out to exit his office coolly and comfortably on his superannuation. In fact, this is how the Super Babus like 'Honorable Padhi' adorning top offices of statutory and constitutional bodies like Orissa Information Commission are more and more flourishing by way of fleecing the common people, and then in the end given a warm fare-well by their acquiescent fraternity for having rendered invaluable services to the society. As it happens, after a few days, the people tend to forget how they were cheated by Mr.X, because they would be by then engaged with Mr.Y, who might turn out a greater cheat. This is how, to quote the words of National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (2002), the State has gone poorer while its managers richer and richer in the post-independence India.
As revealed from the Dept. of Finance, Govt of Orissa through an RTI query, a total of Rs.2 crore 93 lakh and 50 thousand was provided from the State exchequer to Orissa Information Commission headed by Mr.D.N.Padhi during last 5 years, alone on the head of awareness generation programmes. But as every one knows, as per Section 26 of RTI Act 2005, organizing awareness programmes is not at all the job of Information Commission which is essentially an adjudicatory body, but that of the Government at the Centre or in State. Moreover, that is exactly the practice followed all over the country. But, peculiarly enough, it was noticed in the context of Orissa that Mr.Padhi on assuming his office as Chief OSIC and abusing his high position as a statutory authority could successfully manipulate to siphon off the entire year-wise money earmarked for awareness generation to his control, while as per law it should have entirely gone to the State nodal agency for RTI Act i.e. Information and Public Relations Dept. Pitiably, the said nodal agency, which is supposed to have got the entire money, didn't receive even a single farthing from the State Budget on the head of awareness generation till date- a fact again revealed through the abovementioned RTI query. Consequently, not a pea-nut worth of awareness programmes has ever been organized by the State Government on RTI front.
Mr.Padhi having succeeded in misappropriating the entire awareness money to himself by flouting Section 26 of Act, disposed it of as per his sweet will, such as by way of distributing grants to his pet NGOs, allotting job contracts to his favorite persons and agencies, purchasing machines and gadgets from sources personally close to him, making foreign trips himself, and above all organizing seminars and workshops through such persons who would invite him as Chief Guest or Inaugurator of the event and otherwise oblige his personal whims. Since he didn't follow any established norms or criteria in respect of selection of grantees or job contracts, he was able to pocket a lion's share himself out of the total money already misappropriated by him from the State exchequer.
The basis for the above assertion is derived from some recently gathered facts. Strange may it seem, even the Minister for I&PR Orissa, the nodal Dept for RTI doesn't know as to how and under which provision of law, Orissa Information Commission were allotted awareness money? In his reply to the above question raised by Mr.Karendra Majhi MLA on 3.8.2010, Mr. Prafulla Samal the Minister admitted, " the information has been sought from Orissa Information Commission". It is further strange that till date Orissa Information Commission has not been able to submit its reply to the Assembly though the stipulated period of two months for the reply has already expired. Even the Dept of Finance in its reply to the above mentioned RTI query, has not been able to explain the provision of law under which the above mentioned amount of Rs.2,93,50,000/- was allotted to Orissa Information Commission for awareness building activities.
Moreover, in order to hide the facts of his bungling of awareness money, Mr. Padhi as Chief OSIC committed another serious offense against RTI Act 2005. While the Section 27 of RTI Act has mandated that all the Officers and Employees to be appointed in the Commission must be notified in the Official Gazette along with the salaries and allowances and terms and conditions applicable to them, Mr.Padhi misusing his high office and authority managed to employ his hand-picked persons in strategic positions bypassing any mandatory notification. There being no notification, it was Mr.Padhi who arbitrarily fixed their salaries and conditions of service etc. to keep them always at his beck and call just as his domestic servants. He has meticulously engineered this illegal arrangement so that none of them shall ever leak out his nefarious acts of financial and administrative bungling, and rather carry out silently and obediently all his mischievous designs including litigation against the RTI activists whosoever might voice any criticism against him.
It is noteworthy that the fact of patent illegality of Chief Orissa Information Commissioner usurping the jurisdiction of State Government in derogation of his own job profile was brought to the notice of Governor, who is the disciplinary authority over him under Section 17 of the Act, on several occasions in the past. But regretfully, no action has as yet been taken against Mr.Padhi by the Governor. However, now that strong facts gathered from official sources clearly indicate Mr.Padhi's calculated hand in misappropriation of a large amount of public money through naked abuse by him of his office and authority, the Governor Orissa should immediately take either of following actions as required under Section 17 of RTI Act-
(1) To dismiss him from office before he formally exits on 30th of November 2010 along with recovery from him the total amount of Rs.2 crore 93 lakh and 50 thousand misappropriated by him from public exchequer on the misleading ground of awareness creation; and
(2) Institution of an Enquiry by a Supreme Court Judge into the acts of financial misappropriation and administrative bungling indulged in by Mr.D.N.Padhi around awareness money during his entire tenure of five years as Chief Orissa Information Commissioner, as required under Section 17(1) of RTI Act 2005.
Chitta Behera
Cuttack, Dated 19th Nov 2010
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