Barred from office, DDC GM resigns

Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) General Manager Siya Ram Prasad Singh, who has been barred by the DDC’s four employees’ unions from entering his office for the last one month, resigned from his position on Tuesday. The unions have accused him of embezzling a large amount of the public enterprise’s money. Singh said he submitted his resignation to the Ministry of Agriculture Development. “I am compelled to resign from my current position due to the obstruction by the unions for the last one month,” he said. Singh accused the employees of violating the court’s order. “Although the Appellate Court on October 3 had issued an order to the unions to allow me to work as the DDC chief, the workers defied the order,” he said. Singh said the workers even disobeyed the MoAD’s order. “Following the court’s order, the ministry also asked the workers to allow me to resume official work. But they violated the ministry’s order too,” he said. The employees have charging Singh with trying to embezzle a huge amount of money by overvaluing costs for the construction of a production plant in Khumaltar, and overvaluing the cost of a powdered milk plant to be purchased from Chitwan Milk. Singh has also been accused of approving Rs 320 million in contrast to the proposed Rs 80 million for the construction of the Khumaltar plant, attempting to purchase the Chitwan Milk plant for Rs 1.12 billion although the cost estimated four years ago was just Rs 560 million. The unions have also charged Singh with approving a consultancy fee of Rs 14.4 million to the National Engineering Consultancy in Jwagal, Lalitpur, without taking the opinion of the technical management. But Singh said he had taken the decisions with consent from the DDC board and staff concerned. “In almost all the decisions, I took the recommendation of the concerned DDC bodies,” said Singh, terming the employees’ accusations baseless. The unions also accused Singh of bribing high-level officials at the Ministry of Agriculture Development to continue in his position even after his retirement age. Singh was supposed to retire on April 16. The employees had also filed complaints at the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, the National Vigilance Centre and the Prime Minister’s Office.