IFS officer accuses senior colleagues of misusing funds

 An Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer has made a complaint to the Lokayukta about some of his senior colleagues misusing office and misappropriating funds by inflating bills in the tree-felling project through another state-owned entity, the Karnataka State Forest Industries Corporation (KSFIC).

The officers produced inflated bills in violation of the Karnataka Forest, Account Codes and Sanctioned Schedule of Rates (SSR).

The complaint pertains to the Shivamogga division only and has been transferred to the Lokayukta police for investigation. The complainant is IFS officer Sudarshan G A, who is Conservator of Forests and Secretary of Malnad Area Development Board in Shivamogga.

He has named the Head of Forest Force and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), G V Sugur, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Kishan Singh Sugara, Chief Conservator of Forests (Shivamogga Circle) Smita Bijjur, former Deputy Conservator of Forest (Shivamogga division) K V Mallikarjuna, PCCF and Managing Director of Karnataka State Forest Industries Corporation Kanwar Pal and two other officials.

Sudarshan alleged that the KSFIC was used as conduit to siphon off government funds in Shivamogga division. The timber bills were inflated by misclassifying poles as timber and causing loss to the state exchequer.

Agreements

The Forest Department has entered into agreements with the KSFIC for felling of trees. The Karnataka Forest Code mandates that a material be classified as per the code to prevent loss to the State government. A material with mid girth of 80 cms is classified as timber, otherwise it has to be categorised as pole.

The agreement between the department and the KSFIC has classified poles as timber only to escalate the bill.

The complainant has submitted documents for misappropriation relating to one of the logging areas, ‘Agasadi’ in the Thirthahalli range of Shivamogga division.

The SSR stipulates a lower cost of extraction charges for the poles, hence every piece was considered timber in the instant case. From the depot receipts, it was found that more than 90 per cent of the materials were classified as timber whereas most of the materials were actually different types of poles.

The complainant further claimed that payments were made in 2013-14 without the mandatory sanctioned rates and without any estimation.

Loss of up to Rs 1 crore

“The KSFIC has felled a total of 16,590 trees, yielding about 40,000 pieces in the same scale. The complainant has stated that even if 30,000 poles have been misclassified as timber, a conservative amount unnecessarily charged to the state exchequer in one division for one year would be Rs 60 lakh to Rs one crore.

It is also alleged that the amount sanctioned does not match the payment made to the KSFIC,” a Lokayukta official said and added that an FIR would be registered in the case.