Huge Irregularities, Lapses In OSBCL Supply Chain 

Bhubaneswar: The fire mishap in the depot of the Odisha State Beverage Corporation Limited (OSBCL) at Durgapur under the Jarpada police station in Angul district on August 18, in which liquor worth lakhs of rupees were destroyed as two trucks off in flames again exposed the gross irregularities and blatant lapses by the senior officials of the OSBC.

• CAG report put in cold storage

• Top officials blamed for mismanagement

Notably, one truck loaded with Blenders Pride and Royal Stag and another truck carrying Hunter Beer caught fire and were completely reduced to ashes when the Fire Services person reached the spot.

Though a short circuit is claimed to be the reason for the mishap, mystery still shrouds the incident. Sources said the truck drivers were cooking food near the trucks which might have ignited the fire. The Jarpada police had detained the Depot in charge Mahalik for questioning. Thankfully the fire did not spread to the depot which would have led to a big tragedy. There are no fire safety measures at the OSBC depots or facilities for preparing food or lodging facilities for the drivers.

Earlier, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) found significant lapses in the regulation of the legal supply chain for liquor products in Odisha by the Excise Department. But though nearly two years have passed, no measures have been taken by the OSBCL top officials including Chairman Sushil Kumar Lohani and Chief General Manager (Operations) Manas Kumar Swain to streamline the operations.

The CAG In its compliance audit for the year ended March 2021of the Departments of Excise, which was laid in the State Assembly on 2nd December 2022 has pointed out the absence of the critical ‘track and trace’ functionality to monitor the movement of liquor products from manufacture to retail point.

The auditing agency pointed out that no software application or mobile app had been developed to empower the end consumer of liquor products in Odisha to scan the Excise Adhesive Labels (EALs) affixed on liquor products at retail points to ascertain the EAL as genuine, the product safe for human consumption and Government taxes had indeed been paid.

 The report further said that such an application would have also enabled the officers of the Enforcement Wing of the Excise Commission to scan the EALs affixed on liquor products at any point during the movement through the legal supply chain and verify the specific routing from source to destination. The EALs are required to be affixed on all liquor products, to enable ‘track and trace’ functionality through the legal supply chain.

Another significant lapse commented on by the CAG is the inordinate delay in implementation of the EAL Accounting Module in the supply chain management software, which had been scheduled to be completed by 2014, but had not been implemented even by the end of 2022.

 

 

The CAG clarified that manufacturers located outside Odisha State had not supplied liquor products commensurate with the number of EALs which they had been issued, and not even renewed their licenses during subsequent financial years. There was a material risk that such EALs may have been diverted for use by manufacturers located within Odisha, who could then affix them on their liquor products which were the result of excess production not reported to the Excise Commission.

 The CAG also slammed the poor documentary and storage controls in the depots of the OSBCL. No norms had been adopted for spoilage (no refrigeration facilities for beer at its depots for example, and liquor products exposed to rain and sun in some cases), breakage or pilferage. The OSBCL does not adequately monitor the loss of liquor products from its depots, which results in loss of VAT, the report observed.

The CAG highlighted that in the absence of CCTV cameras to monitor and record the footage of the production line at distilleries or breweries, the visiting officers were not in a position to review footage of the production shifts which had taken place from the time of their last visit.

However, it seems, the CAG report has been put in the cold storage by the Excise Department and the OSBCL top mandarins in particular to continue with their corrupt activities.