Patna,(BiharTimes): A case of financial impropriety in claiming reimbursement of expenditure incurred on organising the Global Meet For A Resurgent Bihar (January 19-21, 2007) has come to light.

According to sources the Government sanctioned Rs 20 lakhs to the organizing committee subject to verification or scrutiny of account. The organising partners were New Delhi-based Institute for Human Development (IHD), Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), Patna, Bihar Times and Bihar Industries Association,Bihar Chamber of Commerce, TiE and A N Sinha Institute. They jointly organised the Global Meet. But sources said that the whole amount was transferred into the account of the IHD which was an act of financial impropriety because the state government sanctioned the amount to the organizing committee.

The account was not brought to public domain. Besides, the IHD raised funds from RBI, World Bank, several public sector undertakings and other organizations in the name of the Global Meet. It also raised resources from registration fee from the participants.

The whistleblower who earlier sent all the details of the account to the chief minister seeking detailed enquiry based on the facts made available to him, told BT that the State Bank of India took up the lunch cost of all days of the Meet and Maurya Hotel footed one dinner cost.

The financial part was never discussed with other organizers and whole amount was usurped by IHD in their own account, it is alleged. According to sources without consulting other partners, the IHD claimed reimbursement of short fall from govt. when they made cool profit of 17.83 lacs.

Detailed Ledger Copy of the Income & Expenditure...

It needs to be reminded that the state government has approved approximately Rs three crore to organize such meet on 17-19 Feb at Patna. Perhaps it would be the first ever event with such a huge expenditure. The IHD is one of the organizers this year too.

Comment

comments...

This is organised sponsored trip to Bihar for friends and connects at the cost of tax payers of Bihar. NGOs would make money and would teach some flying ideas to Nitish ji that could never be implemented in Bihar, Last time too a team of academician from Delhi came and enjoyed the trip and discussed poverty at length. This is pure loot of govt. exchequer. Alert media should work as watchdog.

Shashi Bhushan Prasad

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Another global meet of Biharis is proposed for coming February being organised by Institute for Human Development, a Delhi based NGO. Please see the news of loot by this NGO in the last meet in 2007- link given below:

It is really shocking that such corrupt institution is again associated in organising this prestigious conference sponsored by Nitishjee, the Chief Minister wedded to root out crimanality and corruption - the bane of Bihar. This year Bihar Govt. has sanctioned three crores and this NGO will have a field day.
We need to ask for a proper enquiry and prosecution in the matter. This will help in salvaging Bihar's image.

Birendra Bihari Lal
Bangalore

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First of all thanks to Bihar Times for exposing this scam. This proved the relevance of independent media. The story supported by ledger and other facts has virtually left no room to defend this act. I appreciate BT for making their position very clear.

Corruption is corruption and should not be defended under the garb of branding. Will this type of branding would help the state.

The said organization, as ledger says, has manipulated and govt. and other organizations were kept in dark. Govt. should have asked them to submit their audited report before them.

If these people can do this kind of manipulation in 60 lacs, what would they  do when the govt. has sanctioned 3 crore and some more crores they would fetch from other agencies. Is this the event just to make money or has any other purpose?

This is a great service to the people of Bihar in preventing another scam in offing with much larger magnitude. Keep  up the high spirit in exposing corruption at higher level.

Aditya

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A careful reading of the article titled above gives an impression to the reader that the author is an interested party who is calling grapes sour. Especially the box item in the news suggests so by sketching a background of the newsportal’s association with the project. News portals to my mind should follow the objectivity principles and not use its platforms to settle their personal or political scores against any one. That would adversely reflect on the credibility of the news portal. At a time when Bihar is undergoing an image turnover globally – coming as it does from my experience of travelling Europe and US frequently – as a Bihari I feel it is high time that we ponder collectively and look at larger issues that can change people’s perspective on our State. 

 Further, to my understanding of the last event in 2007 that I had participated in Patna, I was given to understand that the event was organized by raising funds from various funding sources – that the author has himself inadvertently cited and admitted in the table of fund sources - of which the Bihar Government was only one. You are accountable to a source when you get fund from that source merely. Accountability of the operational organizer in fact seem to be to all the sources of funding, who have not raised a finger so far. How is it and why it is being raked up at a time when the Bihar government intends to take the event to a professional level by appealing Bihari diaspora to connect to their land. I feel it is high time that we need to keep our petty egos apart and partner our energies together in raising the Bihar brand. Your news portal enjoys some credibility among Biharis and it need to align itself to the general prevailing mood of optimism that is surrounding our State.

Hope you would publish my views in the interest of balanced reporting to your readers.

Kanu Sinha

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In the interest of transparency and with a view to sustaining the interest of the institutions and organizations which financially supported the 2007 meet and may be inclined to support such initiatives in the future , a thorough scrutiny of the accounts by the Organizing Committee and the partners of the meet under the supervision of the State Government is desirable. This is all the more necessary in view of the upcoming February 2012 meeting of the Non-Resident Biharis (NRBs) for which Bihar Government has sanctioned Rs 3 crores and the list of organizers includes the institution to whose account the amounts were credited in 2007 . This is also necessary for the credibility of the institution concerned. In any case, such events should in no case be guided by the motive of profit-making but by a larger vision of development of Bihar.

There is no doubt that the state Government is sincerely trying to promote industrialisation and the initiative should be applauded and supported by all concerned. In order to derive the maximum mileage from an event like this , a careful preparation on substantive issues is a must. It would be useful to review the progress on the follow-up to the 2007 meet and in the light of such a review, to prepare for the February meet. The State Government has already approved 603 investment proposals so far ( according to the Government web-site), quite a number of them approved as far back as 2006-07. An analysis of the actual implementation of these proposals, difficulties encountered, if any, and remedial measures adopted/envisaged to remove these difficulties would have important lessons for the future. This would ensure that the upcoming event does not become merely a talking shop but results in concrete commitments by the investors.

In this connection, it would be worthwhile to recall the experience of Karnataka Government which organized a Global Investors Meet in June, 2010 resulting in 40 Memoranda of Understanding ( MOU) for an investment of nearly 3 lakh crores . Again ,the same Government organized in December, 2011 Agri-business and Food Processing Summit which attracted investment proposals of over 78,000 crores from a lead Bank (SBI) and about 30 private players.

Ramadhar
IAS (retired)
Former Chairman, Bihar State Farmers Commission
Former Member, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), Government of India
Former Service Chief, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, Rome, italy

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I was shocked to see this news because I was present in that event with a group of 9 people from Mumbai.20lac is not too much amount comparision to other scams, but this event was the first  NRI/B meet in Nitish Raj. Mental level of our bureaucrats can not be changed. Organising committee got a good chance to show their expertise to manipulate the fund,but they have been caught after 4yrs when another Global Meet is on card.How the people will trust on the same committe.Government should come forward to clarify the whole issue raised by BT.

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This is again a ghotala and this time too the role of 'BIADA.' is under question. Why they failed to do scrutinY OF IHD accounts. This type of corruption always happens in collusion with the bureaucracy. Responsibility must be fixed.

Ravi Sinha

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we are not surprised . all this chicanery has the hallmark of this government .nitish has used his better education to better account. lalus method of fooling the people was crude and reflected his lack of education. beneath the skin they are the same. nitish was quick to capitalise on the fact that lalu has irrevocably alienated the middle calsses. after all they are the opinion makers . so very carefully he positioned himself as a leader acceptable to the subaltern classes as well as the elite. the backward classes were appeased by all kinds of sops and the elite by such jamborees where he would invite the likes of megahnad desai and other lotus eaters , who knew nothing about bihar . i am aware that an intellectual whose association with bihar culd be called only less than nothing was flown in first class from london . the meet foot the bill of over rs one lac. the moving spirit behind the ADRI is too well known to find mention - he changes his intellectual opinion as frequently as politicians change their party .this gentleman who never tired of finding virtues hidden to all of us in lalus policy is now the chief propagandist for this regime.

nitish knows the value of keeping intellectuals and media men happy . because it is they who give substance to his hollow claims for people who do not experience the reality of this regime first hand .about this global meet we will invite zulu and haitian intellectuals to tell us something about us and write a report in glowing terms just as father and son duo who praise the virtues of navratna tel and idea moble for a fee.

thakur ravindra singh