Vigilance detected widespread irregularities at Kerala forest offices after Operation 'Vanaraksha'

Thiruvananthapuram: Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) detects widespread corruption and irregularities following a state-wide flash inspection held at 71 Forest Range Offices across Kerala, VACB said on Sunday.

An operation named 'Vanaraksha' (Protect Forest) started at 10.30 am on Saturday and ended late night, VACB officials said.

According to VACB, the operation was launched after receiving information that widespread irregularities and corruption were occurring in the execution and awarding of contracts for various works, including construction activities, road construction, tribal settlement development, fire line construction, boundary markings, and solar fencing construction.

There was information that forest officials would take contracts in the name of benami contractors and execute the works themselves. In other contracts, officials were collecting large amounts as commission and thereby abetting irregularities, VACB officials said.

There were also allegations that, in order to receive commission amounts from contractors, officials were often using online transactions, UPI transfers, accounts of relatives, and accounts of intermediaries.

As part of the operation, files of the last five years relating to projects against which allegations of corruption had been raised were subjected to inspection, VACB said in a statement.

“In the State-wide flash inspection, Vigilance detected records showing that officials of various offices of the Forest Department had received Rs 1,07,94,000 from contractors through bank accounts. An unaccounted cash amount of Rs 11,500 was also seized from the possession of officials,” VACB said.

According to VACB, in many offices, it was also seen that trees were sold without following tender procedures. “In most offices, files relating to contracts such as bills, quotation details, expenditure of funds, receipts, etc. had not been properly maintained, and discrepancies were found in the entries recorded in books,” the statement said.

Vigilance Director Manoj Abraham said that strict legal action will be taken against officials who accepted bribes and facilitated irregularities, as well as against contractors.

He also said that further inspections, as part of the flash operation, will continue in the coming days and that a detailed examination will be conducted of files from the past five years related to the implementation of the projects.

Bank account statements of officials, their family members, and contractors will also be collected, he added.