WHY EVERYTHING IS NOT RIGHT AT DMIC IITGNL ?

 

Although there are a total of four Industrial Development Authorities in Gautam Buddha Nagar District of Uttar Pradesh, but most people only know about the Noida Authority, Greater Noida Authority and Yamuna Expressway Authority -Very few people know about the fourth Industrial Development Authority which is DMIC IITGNL ( Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Integrated Industrial Township Greater Noida Limited). Actually the office of this authority is also inside the office of Greater Noida Authority and the management of Greater Noida Authority is controlling and managing all the affairs of this Authority. The misdeeds of this authority are not coming in front of the Public and the State Government is also completely unaware and oblivious to the strange adventures of this authority. DMIC IITGNL also refuses to answer the questions asked under the Right to Information Act to hide its misdeeds - The questions asked through RTI are not answered satisfactorily.

 

Significantly, DMIC IITGNL has been established under the Companies Act,2013 and all the rules and regulations of the Companies Act, 2013 are applicable to it. But most of the company laws are not being followed in this authority. According to section 203(1) of the Companies Act, the appointment of full time CEO and full time CFO is mandatory in this company (Authority) but full time CEO has not been appointed in the Company from the very beginning and the CEO of Greater Noida Authority is looking after the work of CEO of this authority on part time basis. Similarly, there is no full time CFO in this company and DGM Finance of Greater Noida Authority has been made the CFO of this authority on part time basis. With no  full time CEO and full time CFO, how this Authority is operating is anybody’s guess. The company has hired a full time Chief Financial Officer couple of times for some time, but because the CFO was advising the company management to work according to rules and regulations and was becoming a hindrance to the company management, he was asked to leave the Company.  The company (Authority) has opted for the CAG appointed Auditor only in 2021, whereas the company is running since 2016 and company should have opted for the CAG appointed Auditor in 2016 itself. The CFO who was instrumental in the appointment of CAG Auditor in 2021,was also shown the door by the management as he was very pro-actively ensured that the financial statements and affairs of the company are audited by the CAG appointed Auditor only.

 

The misdeeds of this authority do not end here. The main task of the authority is to develop the industrial township and for that the land is to be sold for the industry. But the industrial land, which was costing around Rs 20000 per square meter, was sold by the authority at throwaway prices at an average price of only 5250 square meter, thereby causing huge financial loss to the Government Revenue.

 

It is not that the Industrial Land of Authority  was being sold at a throwaway prices unintentionally or accidentally. It was clear that all this was being done deliberately with the intention of defrauding the government exchequer.

 

In fact, it is the work of the Chief Financial Officer of the Authority to decide at what rate the land of the Authority should be sold, but most of the time the Chief Financial Officer was not appointed in the Authority. The big question is that when the Greater Noida Authority itself was selling its industrial land at a rate of about Rs 20000 per square meter, then why the Land of DMIC IITGNL, which was much superior, was sold at throwaway prices of around Rs.5250 per square meter ?

 

In 2019, the authority appointed a Chief Financial Officer on contract basis. The new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), immediately after the joining raised the same issue vigorously with the CEO of the company and explained how the cost of land in the company's township is much more than its selling price. The CFO also proposed to increase the land prices to about Rs 20000 per square meter, but due to some pretext or the other, the Board of Directors of the company was reluctant to increase the rate of land. In 2021 the assignment of Land Rate Revision was entrusted to a Committee and the Committee further assigned this work to a Private Consultant. Before the Land Rate Revision Committee could decide the revised rates of the land allotment, company management demanded the resignation of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), saying that the company no longer needed his services,so he should now resign.

It can be seen from the above, that at first the company management does not keep any full time CFO in the company and even if it does, it keeps on looking for excuses to get him out as soon as possible because the CFO who by virtue of being a  chartered accountant and also the expert on financial matters,kept commenting on all the financial irregularities of the company which are not liked by the company management.

The company has also sold land to some industrial houses along with additional FAR without charging any extra amount for the additional FAR.

 

The question is that when all these financial irregularities were happening in this authority, why is the state government not aware of it even today ? With the formation of the authority in 2016, the government itself should have ensured that the full time CEO is appointed in the authority, who looks after the work of the authority seriously. At the same time, the government should also ensure that it appoints a senior chartered accountant as the CFO of the company so  that he can do his work independently without any undue pressure from the company management.

 

The result of all these misdeeds is that the work of the Industrial Township development, which should have been completed long time back, is still pending.