ACB discovers private business in govt office

ACB discovers private business in govt office
TNN

PANAJI: Officers of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) raided the office of the legal metrology department at Mapusa on Monday morning and found a private person operating from the department’s office.

ACB sleuths said that they had received complaints that a private person was checking Bardez taluka’s traders’ weights and measures and issuing receipts. He would charge anything between Rs 100 and Rs 500. The legal metrology department’s inspector would renew licenses only after traders acquired their receipts from this person. The department issues licenses to traders to use weights and measures in their shops and establishments. These weights and measures have to be checked and their licenses renewed every year. The license is renewed by the department’s inspector after a fee of Rs 100 is paid, said ACB sources.

ACB officials said preliminary inquiries revealed that the person—a representative from Lexprus Enterprises, a Duler-based firm—couldn’t produce any documents authorising him to operate from the department’s premises. Officials suspect that he was operating illegally in connivance with the local officials. Though the department does accord licenses to private players for maintenance and repair of weights and measures, they need to have a separate office and are not allowed to function in the department’s office, sources said, adding that it is the inspector who is authorised to issue clearance certificates. The ACB is investigating the role of three officers of the department, including the inspector and assistant inspector, as well as the role of the proprietor of the private firm.
15 September 2009,The Times of India, Goa edition