When Suresh Prabhu inappropriately appointed former DMRC Managing Director, E. Sreedharan as a one-man committee to fix accountability in all rail tendering processes

One of Mr Suresh Prabhu’s first decisions as Rail Minister was to appoint former DMRC Managing Director, E. Sreedharan as a one-man committee to fix accountability in all rail tendering processes.

This decision is strange and improper and reveals why Suresh Prabhu is clearly unsuited to the job of rail minister.

You will be aware that the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFO) of the United Kingdom is prosecuting Alstom companies and executives for having bribed Delhi metro officials to secure Delhi metro contracts between 2001 and 2006, when Mr E Sreedharan was the Managing Director of Delhi Metro.

The fact that criminal charges have been leveled against Alstom and criminal trials are underway in the United Kingdom establish that the SFO would have obtained credible evidence that Alstom did bribe Delhi metro officials.

As usual the Indian government and authorities have made no efforts to identify the Delhi metro officials who received bribes.

In a public relations exercise, Mr Sreedharan in some statements issued to the press has attempted to cover up the fact that Delhi metro officers were bribed. Sreedharan’s statement that since DMRC dealt with Alstom France and not Alstom UK, the bribery charges are wrong is so disingenuous so as to be laughable. Is Mr Sreedharan so naïve that he cannot appreciate that money to bribe DMRC officials might have been deliberately routed through Alstom UK instead of Alstom France? Further Sreedharan’s other statements giving nonsensical reasons for his outright dismissal of the bribery complaints and charges show that he is trying to cover something up.

Sreedharan places reliance on the role of Pacific Consultants International who he says handled DMRC tenders. Is Sreedharan unaware that senior executives of Pacific Consultants International were convicted by Japanese courts for bribing Vietnamese officials during the same period to which the Alstom Delhi Metro bribes pertain?

Has Sreedharan seen the evidence with the UK authorities? If not, then why did Sreedharan feel the need to publicly and prematurely defend DMRC against bribery charges? This defensiveness of Sreedharan leads one to wonder if he himself has something to hide.

Shouldn’t Shreedharan instead have asked that the Indian authorities also investigate these charges and identify which DMRC officers were bribed?

The fact that the SFO has launched criminal proceedings leads to an inference that the SFO has found evidence including money trails of payments made by Alstom to DMRC officials through intermediaries.

The Indian government and authorities are still to officially react or investigate.

Then why is Sreedharan jumping the gun and defending DMRC and himself?

The question therefore arises should someone like Sreedharan who by his press statements has attempted to cover up the Alstom bribes to DMRC under his watch, have been appointed by Suresh Prabhu as a one man committee to recommend how to fix the Railway tendering process?

Doesn’t the SFO case against Alstom place Sreedharan himself under a cloud until the public knows exactly which DMRC officials received bribes from Alstom? And until it is established what role if any Sreedharan played in the Alstom - Delhi Metro corruption.

Under the circumstances it was improper of Suresh Prabhu to appoint Sreedharan to this one-man committee and this committee must be disbanded. Sreedharan must not be given any government position or role until he is cleared of involvement in the Alstom DMRC bribery case.

These facts and Sreedharan’s appointment to this one-man committee by Suresh Prabhu again raise grave doubts about Prabhu’s suitability and intent as Rail Minister. Suresh Prabhu appears to lack a moral compass and appears not to have an innate sense of right versus wrong.