The accused, Bhaskar, brought his wife Upadhyayula Aparna, an Uttar Pradesh-cadre IAS officer, to Andhra Pradesh as APSSDC deputy CEO.
Published Mar 09, 2023 | 3:56 PM ⚊ Updated Mar 09, 2023 | 3:56 PM
Inauguration of a technical skills development centre as part of the Siemens Project before the scandal broke out. (APSSDC/Facebook)
The multi-crore Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) scam has once again grabbed headlines with the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) arresting a former employee of Siemens Industrial Software Private Limited.
The scam has generated much political heat in Andhra Pradesh, with the ruling YSRCP accusing the previous government under N Chandrababu Naidu, of diverting the pelf to TDP through shell companies.
CID sources said the agency arrested GVS Bhaskar from Noida in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, 8 March, and he is being brought to Vijayawada on a transit warrant.
It has been alleged that the accused had manipulated the estimates/valuation of the APSSDC-Siemens project.
In 2019, the YSRCP government ordered a CID probe into the alleged scam.
The project envisaged creating six Siemens clusters for skill development training, each costing ₹546.84 crore.
CID officers said that Bhaskar had prepared the project report along with the other co-accused, and inflated the valuation of the Siemens skill development programme to ₹3,300 crore.
“This placed an obligation of ₹371 crore on the Government of Andhra Pradesh as it had to pay 10 percent of the project cost,” a CID source told South First.
Though the software supplied by Siemens Industrial Software Pvt Ltd was invoiced at just ₹58 crore (without any discount) Bhaskar manipulated the project estimates and projected the figure as ₹3,300 crore,” the source added.
According to government orders, the Siemens skill development programme partners would contribute 90 percent of the project cost.
However, Bhaskar and others allegedly colluded with state government officials to manipulate the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to inflate the work order to Siemens and Designtech to ₹371 crore.
“Every mention of the valuation of the project and the obligation of technology partners to contribute 90 percent of the cost of the project was deliberately left out,” a senior CID officer added.
Bhaskar’s wife, Upadhyayula Aparna, was a 2001 batch IAS officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre. Bhaskar, in connivance with accused No 1 in the case, former APSSDC MD and CEO G Subba Rao, allegedly got his wife an inter-cadre deputation to Andhra Pradesh.
He also allegedly got her posted as the Deputy CEO of APSSDC.
“The couple did not report the conflict of interest (Bhaskar then being an employee of Siemens) to the government at any stage of the project implementation.
As a precondition for releasing funds to the technology partners, the APSSDC officials sought a third-party evaluation of the project.
“Bhaskar allegedly contacted the officials of the Central Institute of Tools Design (CITD) and managed to manipulate its report in favour of the co-accused and himself,” the CID officer said.
Bhaskar later moved to M/s Aptus Healthcare from Siemens. The Central tax authorities later identified Aptus as a shell company formed to siphon off funds in collusion with M/s Designtech, M/s Skillar, etc.
Incidentally, the TDP government released the funds ignoring the objections raised by the then finance secretary, K Sunitha, the CID found during its probe. In the file concerned, Sunitha listed three objections:
“However, the then government dismissed Sunitha’s objections. Former chief secretary IYR Krishna Rao further directed that the funds be distributed by the directives given by the then chief minister Naidu and noted the same in the note file,” CID sources said.
“According to the directives given, PV Ramesh, who was the chief financial secretary at the time, disbursed the funds as instructed by the chief minister and chief secretary,” the officer added.
The CID also contacted Siemens’s German headquarters. The Siemens management clarified in writing that Suman Bose (the then MD of Siemens India) acted on his own without informing the management or the legal team about the agreements being made.
He concealed the facts about his involvement with certain shell companies. His services from the company were terminated, the management said.
The project envisaged creating six Siemens clusters for skill development training, each costing ₹546.84 crore.
In 2014-2015, Siemens India Software Limited’s managing director Soumyadri Shekhar Bose (Suman Bose) and DesignTech’s managing director Vikas Khanvilkar approached the then-chief minister Naidu and proposed that the two companies would set up Centres of Excellence for skill development training in Andhra Pradesh.
They estimated the project to cost over ₹3,300 crore. Siemens and DesignTech would sponsor 90 percent of the cost as grant-in-aid, while the Andhra Pradesh government would have to foot only 10 percent — ₹370 crore (including taxes).
Though GST Intelligence, Pune, flagged the alleged diversion of funds in 2018 itself and informed the then-government, no action was taken.
“In 2018, the GST Intelligence wing under the central government detected that DesignTech had siphoned off ₹241 crore out of the ₹370 crore received from the APSSDC. The state Anti-Corruption Bureau received a complaint in 2018 regarding the large-scale corruption after which the case was registered,” a top CID officer told South First.
Moreover, the officer added that important files in the secretariat were allegedly removed or destroyed to cover the tracks.
The CID found that the accused had diverted the money released by the government through a “network of companies” of the Siemens Project. A forensic audit unearthed the fund diversion.
The audit prompted the APSSDC to order a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the Siemens Project, which was originally designed to provide skills to engineering graduates across the state.
The probe discovered that top executives in DesignTech — an Indian company that provides engineering and product design services — and Siemens reportedly diverted ₹241 crore through various shell companies.
The CID also uncovered that the shell companies siphoned off funds from the APSSDC through a bogus invoicing scheme about the Siemens Project. The ED is also probing the alleged scam due to the involvement of shell companies to divert the money.
