Suman Bose, former Managing Director of Siemens Industry Software (India) Private Limited, during a press conference in New Delhi on Sunday, described the Andhraform Skill Development Corporation project as one of the finest pieces of work and asserted that there was no corruption involved in the multi-crore scam.
Bose said, “As a former MD of Siemens, I think this project was successfully delivered. “Payments, work orders and deliveries were made based on an agreement. It was an outcome-based project. It was not just a delivery project. It was built, operated and transferred. It was operated for 3 to 4 years before it was transferred and handed over,” Bose said while speaking to ANI.
“It was very successfully handed over with complete documentary evidence and handover booklets, and with registers for each of the centres, How can you say this project is a sham project,” he claimed.
“I have no understanding. What I could figure out was there was some service tax on non-payment by a sub-vendor and it kind of triggered from there, but what led to calling the entire project a scam and everybody is a shell company. I think investigating officers will find out the answers,” he said.
Bose’s claims come days after the arrest of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. The TDP chief was taken into custody by the Andhra Pradesh Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in connection to an alleged Andhra Pradesh Skill Development Corporation scam. A First Information Report (FIR) in the case was lodged in 2021. Naidu has been named as accused number 1 in the case, which involves over Rs 250 crore.
When asked about the February 2022 letter of the MD of Design Tech to the CID, submitting all accounts for the Rs 371 crore released by the state govt to the Siemens project, Suman Bose said, “Even before that, when the forensic audit was going on, he had given I think some 20-30 files of documents in a box to the forensic auditor which was completely ignored in the forensic audit.”
“He has been cooperating with investigating agencies. The same documents have been given multiple times to multiple agencies on the usage of funds,” he said.
When asked about the involvement of IAS officer Prem Chandra Reddy and Arja Shrikanth in the project and why they have not been questioned, he said, “I can’t comment upon that. I can only say that this is the live project.”
“By just calling it a dead project, does not make it dead. For the sake of 2 lakh and 13 thousand people who got trained and found jobs or placements, don’t make this project a sham and put their livelihood in danger. I am proud of what we all did,” he said.
He said they all played a significant role leading upto the completion of the project.
“I don’t know Shrinkanth. But once I had a meeting with Reddy when he was the principal secretary. Extremely fine officer, very thoughtful about the state and he did a fantastic job. but no one was against the project. Why their name has not been included, I can’t say,” Bose added.
When asked while he was arrested, if was there any pressure to take Chandra Babu Naidu’s name, he said, “I can only say that I have tremendous faith in the justice of the country and what we did. It’s out there for anybody to see and no matter what people say, allegations are allegations,” he said.
“Allegations have to be substantiated. Courts have also asked the same. If somebody can substantiate this, we will see. If somebody can’t substantiate, the courts can decide,” he said.
“No corruption happened. This is the finest piece of the project. There was a 100 per cent transparency throughout. They need to produce evidence to the court related to shell companies or fake invoices. If everything has been done and delivered, how can you say, the ingredients to the project were fake? It couldn’t be. The delivery is out there in front,” he added.
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
