Thursday, August 27, 2015

How did General Electric corruptly obtain copies of confidential drafts of the Indian Rail Marhowra Project bid documents in 2008 before they were made public?

Issue of General Electric having access to unreleased and confidential Indian Railways Marhowra Project Draft Bid Documents in 2008 

Reproduced below is an email that Attorney Seema Sapra received from Ms Ruby Anand on March 9, 2010 forwarding five pdf files that were sent to the latter by Ms Praveena Yagnambhat (from General Electric) on August 1, 2008. Ruby Anand has in the past served as General Counsel for General Electric in India for about 10 years. She had ceased to be employed as GE India's General Counsel by August 1, 2008. 


The documents attached to this email were the following: 

i. 11th July 2008 D Loco Land Lease Agreement
ii. 11th July 2008 D Loco Maintenance Contract
iii. 11th July 2008 D Loco Procurement Contract
iv. 11th July 2008 D Loco RFP Document
v. 11th July 2008 D Loco Shareholders Agreement


The email from Ruby Anand read:  


“From: Ruby Anand <rubysdesk@gmail.com>

Date: Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 8:35 PM
Subject: See the 5th doc for now - the Loco RFP -issued earlier
To: Seema Sapra <seema.sapra@googlemail.com>



---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Yagnambhat, Praveena (GE Infra, Transportation) <praveena.yagnambhat@ge.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 4:10 PM
Subject: Loco RFP
To: Ruby Anand <rubysdesk@gmail.com>

Dear Ruby


Attached please find a soft copy of the Loco RFP. Please let me know if you are unable to open any of the files.


Regards

Praveena Yagnambhat
GE Infrastructure -  India
Phone : +91 11 4155 5317
Fax :     +91 11 2335 5969

-- 

Ruby 

Ruby Anand

C-4/7 Safdarjung Development Area
New Delhi- 110016
India

Mobile - +91-9811082215”



A printout of the pdf file - 11th July 2008 D Loco RFP Document – which Seema Sapra received from Ruby Anand on March 9, 2010 has been attached as Annexure P-2 to the rejoinder affidavit filed by Sapra on July 23, 2012 in Writ Petition Civil No. 1280/2012 before the Delhi High Court. This document is the Railway Ministry draft RFP (Request for Proposal) for the 2008-2009 tender for the diesel locomotive factory Project at Marhowra.  Similarly, the other four documents attached to Ruby Anand’s email dated March 9, 2010 are all Indian Railways draft documents for the 2008-9 tender for the Marhowra locomotive factory Project.  


These documents are the following:



​​
​​
​​
​​


All the five documents above are confidential draft bid documents from the Marhowra Project tender from 2008 which were never officially released by the Indian Rail Ministry nor officially shared either with General Electric or EMD, the two bidders for this Project. How did General Electric enter into possession of these confidential Government of India documents? 

The RFP for the Marhowra Project tender in 2008 was not issued by the Railways Ministry until the 22 September 2008. So how did General Electric have in its possession on August 1, 2008, the confidential draft documents for the 2008-2009 Marhowra Project tender? How did General Electric get access to these documents on or before August 1, 2008? Who gave these confidential and non-public documents to General Electric? 


These internal Railway Ministry documents (still in draft form) were obviously obtained by General Electric illegally before they were officially finalized and released publicly. This evidence confirms the complaints of corruption against General Electric. General Electric needs to disclose how it came into possession of these confidential documents. How were these documents leaked to General Electric? 


The affidavit filed by the Railway Ministry in response to CM 19501/ 2012 in Writ Petition Civil 1280/ 2012 does not offer any explanation about how General Electric came to possess a copy of the confidential draft of the Marhowra Project RFP on 1 August 2008, when this RFP was formally released to Bidders only on 22 September 2008. The other bidder apart from General Electric, another US firm EMD did not have access to these draft bid documents, so how did General Electric get access? 


All that this affidavit dated 14 January 2013 filed by the Railway Ministry in response to CM 19501/ 2012 (in volume 13 of the court record in Writ Petition Civil 1280/ 2012) states on this issue is the following: 

“It is pertinent to note that any RFP document is one which is discussed, deliberated and finalized after discussion with several stakeholders and consultants.” 

No explanation has been provided by the Railway Ministry as to how General Electric had in its possession the confidential draft Bid Documents for the Marhowra tender on 1 August 2008, before these were formally released to the two Bidders, EMD and General Electric. 


The statement in the Railway affidavit that “It is pertinent to note that any RFP document is one which is discussed, deliberated and finalized after discussion with several stakeholders and consultants” is an attempt to cover up the fact that General Electric had in its possession, the draft Bid Documents before they were officially/ formally released/ shared with either General Electric or EMD. 


This provides evidence that the Marhowra diesel locomotive factory Project has been created/ tailor-made at the behest of and for General Electric. General Electric has since before 2008 influenced the bid documents to ensure that a commercially lucrative contract and opportunity is created for itself using their contacts/ agents within the Indian government (like Montek Singh Ahluwalia and his aide Gajendra Haldea).  



Attorney Seema Sapra, who was employed as in-house legal counsel for GE Transportation and was based in India and was advising on GE's 2010 bid, blew the whistle on this corruption by GE executives. General Electric executives and lawyers have not only failed to investigate this corrupt practice but have put into effect an obstruction of justice conspiracy to cover this up.

The attorney Seema Sapra faced with a life threat from General Electric executives and lawyers filed a legal proceeding in the Delhi High Court being Writ Petition Civil No. 1280/ 2012. The Delhi High Court issued notice in this matter to General Electric Company, GE India Industrial Private Limited and GE Global Sourcing India Private Limited on 7 March 2012. A copy of the Delhi High Court order dated 7 March 2012 can be viewed on the Delhi High Court website at 

http://delhihighcourt.nic.in/dhcqrydisp_o.asp?pn=49717&yr=2012

Instead of appearing before the Delhi High Court in this matter through properly authorized and competent person/s, General Electric Company lawyers and executives (including General Counsel Brackett Denniston, and GE in-house lawyers Alexander Dimitref, Bradford Berenson, and Jeffrey Eglash), caused this legal proceeding to remain hidden from General Electric Company and caused an Indian subsidiary employee K R Radhakrishnan to impersonate as the authorized signatory/ representative of General Electric Company before the Delhi High Court in these legal proceedings between 2012 and 2015 using fraudulent and forged authority documents on behalf of General Electric Company. With the help of this fraud, and using other dishonest, corrupt and illegal means, General Electric Company is attempting to cover up the corruption and FCPA complaints against it in connection with its bids for two Indian Railway tenders - the tenders for the proposed diesel locomotive factory in Marhowra and the tenders for the proposed electric locomotive factory in Madhepura. For more details on this fraud, obstruction of justice and attempted cover-up see http://geimpersonationfraud.blogspot.in/



The Court record for Writ Petition Civil No. 1280/ 2012 can be found at http://seemasapra.blogspot.in/p/updated-court-documents-in-whistle.html


Though Writ Petition Civil No. 1280/ 2012 has been disposed off (as GE executives and lawyers subverted these legal proceedings in an obstruction of justice conspiracy), the complaints against General Electric including the complaint regarding corrupt procurement of confidential draft bid documents by General Electric have not been investigated or decided.


For more on General Electric corruption in India in connection with the Indian Rail tenders for the proposed diesel locomotive factory at Marhowra and the proposed electric locomotive factory at Madhepura, see



http://geimpersonationfraud.blogspot.in/  General Electric substituted fake representative/ signatory in Indian corruption legal case


http://gecorruption.blogspot.in/  FCPA alert- General Electric paid bribes to Indian public officials using third party contractor - Aartech Consultants India Private Limited

http://gemarhowracorruption.blogspot.in/  The PwC & Vinod Sharma conflict of interest & GE corruption in Marhowra Project

http://gemarhowracorruptionpart2.blogspot.in/ Shakeel Ahmed, Indian Rail official corruptly vetted GE 2008 bid documents for Marhowra Project

http://gecorruptionpart2.blogspot.in/ General Electric corruptly obtained Indian Rail Marhowra Project bid docs before they were public

http://gecorruptionpart3.blogspot.in/ Wikileaks US Embassy cables on creation of Marhowra loco factory Project for General Electric

http://gecorruptionpart4.blogspot.in/ General Electric corruption & fraud to avoid mandatory disclosures in India tender

http://gecorruptionpart5.blogspot.in/ #FCPA Why is General Electric bidding for India electric loco tender which it does not manufacture

http://seemasapra.blogspot.com/   Seema Sapra - General Electric corruption whistle-blower: the Truth prevails