Covid fraud probe at ONGC
ONGC’s vigilance department is investigating an alleged financial scam where Covid special field duty allowances were paid to employees who retired long before the pandemic.
A well-placed source says the vigilance department has identified a chief manager who allegedly created up to 200 fake allowance transactions, in some cases altering the medical bills of retired employees. Vigilance officer Pradeep Kumar Singhal has sent show-cause notices to the former chief manager and the retired employees who allegedly kept receiving cash from ONGC long after they retired.
"Claims were made on behalf of retired employees in Mumbai," says an ONGC source. "Officers working in one of the assets (in Mumbai) misused the system authorisation to increase the claim amounts; over a year, the cost implication has been above Rs50 lakhs ($59,920)."
He adds the accused has pleaded ignorance and claims his official ID has been misused. Beneficiaries have also pleaded innocence and say they are ready to return the money they received wrongly.
Singhal’s show-cause notice says, "It is observed from the SAP system the following 200 settled medical bills of nine retired and one active employee were changed by you at different periods in the SAP system; you increased the said amounts after the approval of the medical officer; due to said increase in the amount in the SAP system, excess amounts were paid to the employees in their respective pay slips." He continues that field duty payments were made to acknowledge employees’ contributions during the pandemic in line with office orders published in 2021.
"However, instances have been observed where you have made field duty payments to three employees, who had retired well before the pandemic, resulting in financial loss to ONGC," he writes. Payments totalling Rs175,000 ($2100) were allegedly made on April 21 (2023) and September 21 (2023) to three employees who retired in 2015, 2018 and 2019.