Erring GAD officials & agencies not to be let off
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, May 14 2013: Five days after an Estimates Committee of the State Assembly exposed the irregularities in the functioning of General Administrative Department of the State Government, Health and Family Welfare Minister Phungzathang Tonzing, who is also in charge of GAD, has categorically stated that stringent action would be taken against the erring officials and agencies who are trying to tarnish the image of the Department.

However, the Minister maintained that the conduct of the Estimates Committee in inspecting the godown of GAD along with mediapersons was not right.

Addressing media persons at his Sangaiprou residence here today, Minister Phungzathang said that the Department has seriously deliberated on the issues raised by the Estimates Committee of Manipur Legislative Assembly during its recent inspection at GAD godown.

The Estimates Committee had exposed to the media that several valuable items were found missing from the GAD godown and also the tenders for the purchase of these articles have not been floated for the last 11 years.

Minister Phungzathang further stated that the Department had already taken a resolution to penalize those erring officials and agencies.

The Department would further investigate into the missing case of valuable items supposedly supplied by M/s Allied Agency and M/s Manipur Trade Centre, Paona Bazar to GAD at the time of official visit of then President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil and PM Dr Manmohan Singh in 2011 .

GAD Minister affirmed that though he was not the Minister concerned in 2011, he would strive to rectify the misdeeds of the Department even by starting open tenders for purchase of articles by the Department.

Pointing out that he was out of station at the time of President Pranab Mukherjee's visit to the State recently, Minister Phungzathang said that GAD had taken Rs.15 lakh from the Finance Department for the payment of services of Hotel Classic and Hotel Imphal.

All other expenditures required for maintaining official hotline telephone and organizing cultural programmes were well maintained at the office, he asserted.

Furthermore, he said that he had instructed the officials of GAD to properly maintain the registers and cash receipts for all the expenses of the Department.

The Minister, however, contended that the Estimates Committee could have been right if it inspected the godown and reported it to the media, but its conduct of inspecting the godown along with media persons was not correct.

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