Another Look Inside Fakeer's Jhola - Part 5 : And the infrastructure Pandora's Box opens and there is trouble Inside
At the Onset, let me refute two falsehoods uttered by Prime Minister and Finance Minister on the Propaganda blitz before upcoming elections:
No. 1: Prime Minister claimed that "Before Electoral Bonds nobody knew from where Money for Fighting Elections came, Now because of Electoral Bonds, we can see the trails"
Complete Falsehood for many reasons:
Parties had to submit to Election Commission and still do have to submit its detailed donation list for anyone donating more than 20,000 rupees under section 29C of Representation of the People Act, 1951 .
What a shameful time to live in India, the two-term Prime Minister doesn't know the Election laws or knowingly lies about it. As for those two young journalists who sat across the PM and digested these lies as if they never heard about this law as well, my request is : choose another profession, Journalism is not your cup of tea.
It seems the PM doesn't even know the provisions made in Finance bill by Arun Jaitley, these bonds carried no information about the Purchaser and any registered political party in India could deposit these bonds to only certain branches of State Bank of India to redeem it. Although they knew who gave them these bonds, even parties didn't knew for certain if the donor himself or herself has purchased it.
THERE WAS ZERO TRANSPARENCY IN ELECTORAL BONDS and THAT IS WHY IT HAS BEEN FOUND TO BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL. ONLY REASON WE CAN KNOW FIND THE MONEY TRAIL IS BECAUSE SUPREME COURT HAS ORDERED TO RELEASE THE DATA ..
SBI tried in many ways to circumvent the release of this data, but Supreme court forced them to do so.
There were no money-trail in SBI released data, as it released Purchaser data and Redemption data in two separate PDF files (actually two MIS reports were printed as PDF by their ultrasmart IT guy). We had convert those PDFs into Excel worksheets or CSV and then had to recreate the trails ourselves.
No 2: Finance Minister claimed: "All parties took money from Electoral Bonds and didn't disclose the Donors name"
False, in the second blog on Electoral Bond Scam, we had disclosed only 24 political parties received Electoral Bonds out of more than 1000 registered parties (registered under Section 29A of Representation of the people Act) who were entitled to encash, if given.
And parties like DMK and National Conference did provide the names of Donors to Election Commission and hundreds of political parties told Election Commission that they didn't receive any Electoral Bonds (EBs) .. all these were also released by Election Commission in their website inside that "ABC.zip" file.
Moreover Madam Finance Minister claims, that Nobody has any moral ground to investigate and point fingers at BJP; Well madam, I don't belong to any party and didn't encash any Electoral Bond .. So surely I'm on firm footing to criticise BJP., who has given tickets to at least Two Electoral Bond giving business' Directors their nomination tickets and their ally TDP has nominated at least one person from a tainted company "Aurobindo Pharma" .. a company that has been proved to have shell companies in Tax havens.
Back to the Pandora's Box of Infrastructure sector and Electoral Bonds (EBs)
I start alphabetically and find APCO infratech has given EBs to Mr. Fakeer's jhola, Thrice and each time its 10 crores in total.. In spite of strong KYC process, SBI managed to describe them in 3 separate names.. although their URN (unique reference number were same, "125202001150000000000".. let me list out those names as well..
1. APCO INFRATECH PVT LTD FORMERLY AP
2. APCO INFRATECH PRIVATE LIMITED
3. APCO INFRATECH PRIVATE LTD
Whoever was handling the Purchaser master, didn't do a good job at SBI.
Since it is Private Limited company, so its shares are not publicly traded. But we can go and see their Director list and their borrowings and charges. First the directors and specially the MDs as found the Zuabacorp profile
And to see if this company is debt free, we look at the charges..
WOW! Zuabacorp reports APCO infratech has 450 records of charges.. it looks like this company never bought a thing with it's own money..
With Authorised Capital of 57 crores and paid up Capital just below 50 crores.. they managed to create outstanding charges of Rupees 151,949,783,266 .. that's 15194 crore 97 lakh ..
Bankers in India are such greedy, they offer loans in lieu of shares (without get them pledged) and same shares can be used as guaranteed assets, over and over again. By the time these loans would go sour, that banker have moved to another bank or another branch after pocketing both official and unofficial incentives.
As for APCO infratech, it seems their policy to create a new company, everytime they win a highway building contract.. And this policy is somewhat recent..
Biggest charge holders of APCO infratech are:
Axis Trustee Services Limited and Government owned institutions such as PNB Investment Services Limited, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank etc.
With so much debt becoming Charge.. they still found 10 crore for Ruling BJP on 3 occasions??!!! Is it because they were getting a lot of business from NHAI??
And I must thank TheMetroRailGuy.com for effective no-nonsense detailed report on Infrastructure projects, In previous posts, I have mistakenly forgotten to take their name while thanking others who had helped me in researching. So thank you, TMRG.
Chronology.. Oh the Dammed.. Chronology
APCO INFRATECH was working on Bundelkhand Expressway along with 3 other contractors, work was slow and shoddy in at least Mehboba District as the District administration was complaining..
On 15th January 2020, APCO Infratech bought 10 Electoral Bonds (EBs) worth 1 crore each and donated them to BJP.
BJP encashed all of them on 21st January 2020 and Next month, PM Modi laid the foundation stone of that Expressway..
Moreover, when time came to inauguration, PM Modi participated in another PR photoshoot for Inauguration in July 2022. And just 5 days later a heavy spell of Monsoon shower washed away stretches of the road and mud caved in.
But the Bonds suddenly improved their credit rating, between February 2020 to May 2020 .. many borrowing charges were registered mainly from HDFC bank, IndusInd Bank and a mammoth 2022,00,00,000 (2022 crore rupees) from Axis Trustee Services Limited.
NHAI invited bids for "Bangalore – Chennai Expressway’s PH2 Package 2" in December 2020 with a completion period / deadline of 730 days (2 years).
But they now have cash to spend ...
Which means this project should have been completed by 2023.. at the agreed cost of 1909.26 crore.
But APCO infratech still lists it as ongoing project and now claims the project is valued at 2007 crore. WHAAAAT ? Yes, see for yourself..
In the ongoing project section, they still list that already inaugurated and caved in Bundelkhand Expressway.
On 10th January 2022, APCO Infratech again bought 10 Electoral Bonds (EBs) worth 1 crore each and donated them to BJP.
BJP encashes them on 17th January,2022 as you can see from the screenshot of the EB redemption PDF page 259 and the top line of page 260.
I do not have to remind you that this is deeply indebted company.. still they opt to donate to ruling BJP ..
And immediately news came up that, "APCO infratech will be the new partner of Webuild in place of Reliance Infra in building Versova-Bandra Sea Link"
Now as an investment choice, they might have picked the right one. BJP ruled Government goes on Infrastructure project awarding spree in 2022 and they pick up 3 projects in a Single day that year, worth about $500 million then (Rupee has depreciated considerably since then and the project values are much lower in $ terms).
The Real Metro Guy wrote 3 separate articles showcasing each project and bid values involved.
In Jewar Airport Link to connect with the 1350 km Delhi – Mumbai Expressway (DME) project, The infrastructure specialist website writes and I quote, "NHAI invited tenders for its construction in January 2022 through the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) with a Rs. 1533.34 crore estimate and 730 day (2 year) deadline. Technical bids were opened in early July to reveal 12 bidders."
This must be a crazy coincidence? right, on one hand NHAI invites tender (e-tender, so sealed envelopes here) and on the other, BJP had encashed 10 crore in EB from the eventual contract winner!!!
Winning bid of Rs.1660.50 crore was just about 13 crore less than second lowest bidder Dineshchandra R Agarwal Infracon Pvt Ltd's 1673.37 crore bid. This 2nd placed company also bought lots of Electoral Bonds and I'll come to them later on.
2nd project was "Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway Package 2" and again we find "NHAI invited bids for its construction in January 2022 under the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) model with a Rs. 1557.51 crore estimate and 2 year deadline. Technical bids were opened in June to reveal 8 bidders."
WHAAAA!!!T .. again January 2022, same month as of the BJP's bond redemption.
3rd Project was "To construct 38.9 km Package 2 of the 121.786 km Shamli – Ambala Expressway project in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana."
APCO's winning margin will startle you..
Winning margin was less than 5 crore.. [ What was happening there??? e-tender or remake of Amitabh Bachchan starring "Trishul" ]
WERE ELECTORAL BOND donation to BJP, THE NEW ERNEST MONEY deposit for Government Tenders?
On 12th October, APCO infratech bought another set of 10 crore Electoral Bonds and donated them to BJP.
On 19th October, BJP encashed all 10 Bonds.
There was this Versova-Dahisar Coastal Road project tender award coming up shortly.. Neatly broken up in 6 packages:
And The real Metro guy reported and I quote:
"APCO Infratech, Megha Engineering and Infrastructures (MEIL), Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and J Kumar Infraprojects – NCC JV were today declared as the lowest bidders to construct different packages of the 22.93 km Versova – Dahisar Coastal Road project in Mumbai.
This six lane project by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in Mumbai’s western suburbs is also known as Versova-Dahisar Link Road (VDLR).
The project’s construction is estimated to cost Rs. 16,621 crore and will be carried out via 6 packages (A, B, C, D, E & F) which includes a series of elevated roads, a cable-stayed bridge, an arched “basket” bridge, ramps and tunnels.
APCO Infratech won 2 packages (A & F), MEIL won 2 packages (C & D) for underground tunneling works, Larsen & Toubro won package E which includes a roughly 80m observation tower, while J Kumar – NCC JV won package B which includes a 4.46 km connection to the 12.20 km Goregaon – Mulund Link Road (GMLR) project."
I must have missed this news while covering MEIL tender wins, because MEIL was giving Hundreds of crores to BJP in October & November, 2023 ...
And No surprises here, APCO wins 2 packages, MEIL wins 2 ..
I mean, what a nice series of Coincidences.. Right?
DRA Infracon Private Limited : This infrastructure player from Ahmedabad also bought Electoral Bonds
Full name is : Dineshchandra R Agarwal Infracon Private Limited
They bought some Electoral Bonds too, on 12th April, DRA InfraCon bought 10 Electoral Bonds, each worth 1 crore .. gave them to BJP.
Reason:
They had just became Lowest Bidder in one of the 3 packages of Khammam-Vijaywada project on April 2. I have discussed this tender award before, Because Megha Engineering (MEIL) who won the other two packages were giving Electoral Bonds by the truckloads..
Now what should we call this 10 crore payment to BJP? A tip for the waiter or Tea-shop boy? Post paid bribe? BJP'S cut or Commission? BJP's Dalali? Extortion?
DRA InfraCon has been a late entrant to this Electoral Bond game but they learned it quickly.
On 12th July, DRA InfraCon gave 3 crore to Shiv Sena (Shinde group) through Electoral Bonds as they were heading BJP's coalition government in Maharashtra.
And on 13th October, they bought 5 One crore denominated EB and gave them to BJP.
And in December, they got this order of Thane Bullet Train Depot ..
I mean, what is this? Extortion or Bribe?
Look these companies have won many other projects as well, but when they have prior track records in Similar projects or the Bond donations and tender awards are not really very close to one another, I haven't flagged them.
There are far too much suspicious activities going in Infrastructure tendering and award process, I think I have to do one or two more posts on this sector. So far our investigation have raised a lot of questions.
1. Are Bid Submissions via e-tendering really secure? A password protected PDF doesn't really secure the contents of the bid.
2. Was someone accessing the submitted files when they were not supposed to be touched? Was that someone leaking tender bid information to competitors?
3. Was that someone doing this on behalf of ruling party?
4. Do they look at the debt on a company's books as well, when they award contracts? After IL&FS, Reliance Infra and JP group's troubles, they still haven't created any safeguards?
These questions are important as ultimately, you the taxpayer pay for all these spending of Government (Or Government takes loan, and one day will make your children or grandchildren pay). Remember if Infrastructure company have to pay bribes to Ruling party, they will either add that to their bill or compromise of quality materials. Either way, the common people lose.
If India had a somewhat Independent Press, Prime Minister had to face all these barrages of Questions.. But there are Zero Press Freedom in India that's why Politicians are called in for Chats and not interviews.
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