Calcutta, Feb. 6: A bribery trail has been unearthed at a public sector company’s Calcutta office that hands out contracts worth Rs 50 crore each month.

An internal inquiry has indicted senior officials in the eastern region office of RITES — under the railway ministry — for allegedly taking bribes to award projects to contractors not financially qualified through fudged balance sheets and forged letter heads

The report of its vigilance department, which carried out the probe, was submitted in November but the management sent the findings to the Railway Board only on February 4. Such reports must be sent to the Central Vigilance Commission within three months of being handed in.

“We had submitted our report in November last year to the management. We also recommended penalties against the officials. However, it was sent to the Railway Board only on Monday. The board will refer it to the Central Vigilance Commission,” said Sudhir Hari, the general manager (vigilance) who conducted the probe into the shady deals.

The Central Vigilance Commission, the government’s top anti-corruption watchdog, may seek a CBI probe as the deals involved projects that RITES was executing for other companies, Sudhir said.

The CBI is already on the trail, acting on a complaint from a contractor who allegedly had to bribe RITES executives to bag a deal.

The officials facing the charges are general manager (projects) S.K. Biswas, joint general manager (commercial) Biswajit Saha, deputy general manager (commercial) H.S. Ghosh, assistant general manager Raja Rai and joint general manager (finance) H.H. Nanda and a few others. They have been accused of taking bribes from Snehasish Das & Company and Modern Enterprises for contracts worth Rs 2 crore to Rs 8 crore.

Neither had a balance sheet size of more than a few lakh rupees. Under RITES’ regulations, only private firms with balance sheets — a measure of financial standing — worth three times the tender value can be given projects to be completed within a year.

“I presented my balance sheet but RITES officials said if I could prepare a false one and bribe them with Rs 20 lakh, they would get me a contract for Rs 3.67 crore in West Bengal Power Development Corporation’s Santaldihi project,” said Snehasish Das, on whose complaint the CBI registered its case (RC00102007A0041) in November against the five officials.

Das didn’t get that deal, but bagged another — a Rs 3.13-crore contract at Durgapur Projects — after bribes and doctored documents allegedly changed hands.

Modern Enterprises, also involved in the Durgapur project, forged the letterhead of West Bengal Mineral Development & Trading Corporation Ltd to show work experience it did not have.

Some of those under the scanner denied there was a probe. “I have no information about any vigilance investigation in our office,” said general manager Biswas. Vigilance officer Sudhir refuted the claim, saying he had “interrogated him personally”.

Deputy GM Ghosh declined to comment. “This is a matter dealt at the top level. I cannot speak to the media. Only our general manager can.”

RITES chairman and managing director V.K. Agarwal, said to have met the officials in Calcutta on January 28 and 29, said: “Action will be taken in due course but we cannot give a time frame.”

Until a few days ago, director (projects) B.K. Mukhija claimed “he had no knowledge of the happenings”, nor had he received any report from the vigilance department. “This (the probe) is one of the routine investigations in our offices to ensure transparency.”