DCIL top brass suspended for 'forgery'

Visakhapatnam In a major development, G.Y.V Victor,, Managing Director and CEO of Dredging Corporation of India Limited (DCIL), a Visakhapatnam-headquartered listed company, has been placed under suspension.

The suspension followed a probe ordered by Visakhapatnam Port Authority (VPA) K. Rama Mohana Rao on receipt of complaints on alleged forgery resorted to by him at the time of selection. Rao also holds the office of DCIL Chairman as VPA has majority stake in the company among four major ports who acquired strategic control over the premier dredging firm in 2019 on payment of around Rs.1050 crore.

Earlier, VPA and DCIL Chairman directed Chief Vigilance Officer-VPA & DCIL (CVO) to enquire into the qualifications, experience and other credentials claimed by Victor in his application against the advertisement for the post of MD & CEO based on complaints received regarding his selection. Victor also gave his preliminary comments thereof.

" After going through the application, the supporting documents, verification/validation of the same through different sources, it has been established in the report that there has been blatant suppression of facts, material misrepresentation of facts, fake claims and false claims in support of his experience criteria by G.Y. V. Victor in his application and supporting documents. As such he is prima facie not eligible to be considered for the post," an official release issued by DCIL said late night on Thursday.

As per the requirement, the applicant should have worked in a listed company having turnover of at least Rs, 500 crore in the last three years prior to the date of advertisement. Victor has claimed experience for working in a firm which belonged to his family and also claimed to have received a salary of Rs. 50 lakh in previous year prior to joining DCIL whereas the firm had "nil" turnover and negligible expenditure towards salary in the last two years as per the documents uploaded with Ministry Corporate Affairs by the said firm, according to the release. The firm was not a listed company but only a LLP firm. Further, Victor was earlier working with DCIL in a floating

establishment from April, 1996 and was dismissed from service in 2000 on disciplinary grounds after enquiry. As per the office order dated 2016 of DCIL a dismissed employee cannot be reemployed in the company in any capacity.

"He suppressed the material information of having been dismissed from the company in the application and also the attestation forms to be submitted to the company. Further, while he was still in the rolls of the company he claimed to have worked in another organisation which is against the rules of the company. As per the rules of the company, employees who have been dismissed cannot be considered for reappointment in the company in any capacity," the release pointed out.

Victor allegedly claimed to have worked as Director in Amareena Group but he was only a partner & not working as Director. Director needs to have a DIN which is a mandatory requirement that was allotted to him on February 26, 2021 only after joining DCIL & he had shown the same DCIL DIN number for Amareena Group.

The enquiry ordered by VPA Chairman Rao stated that Victor claimed to be an MBA/diploma holder from India

Institute of Management Services, New Delhi but after probing the matter in detail it was found that no such institute is in existence.

The report by CVO of VPA stated that Victor obtained permission to do PhD from Anna University in regular mode but in contrary he perused PhD in regular mode at another university based in West Bengal and he was claiming to have also been simultaneously working in Amareena Consults (based in Tamil Nadu) and Archirodon based in Dubai.

The wordings/sentences of the experience certificates submitted by Victor from different organisations were found to be in the same language. As such it has been concluded in the investigation that Victor is prima-facie not eligible to be considered for the post of MD & CEO as per the criteria set out in the advertisement and that his claims of experience are based on wrongful and wilful suppression of material facts and deliberate misrepresentation of facts. The detailed report setting out the above along with other observations was submitted by CVO to the VPA Chairman.

When contacted by Bizz Buzz, Rao confirmed the suspension of Victor on Wednesday and got ratified by the board meeting held on Thursday. He said further enquiry proceedings will be held and appropriate action taken as per the disciplinary rules of the company.