CHENNAI: Employees of the Chennai Port Trust (ChPT) smell something fishy and it’s definitely not the sea. The historic port celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2007 in a grand manner, but has now denied information sought under an RTI on how much it spent on those celebrations — including the number of gold coins it purchased that year to be given as mementos to its employees.R Santhanam, general secretary of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh-affiliated Port and Dock Labour Union at the Chennai Port, had filed an RTI two months ago, specifically asking the number of 5gm gold coins purchased and the total amount spent on the anniversary celebrations. But port authorities discounted the query saying, “Details sought under the plea are not readily available with us.”This has led employees to believe there may have been an irregularity with the purchase of the coins, especially after the Shipping Ministry ordered a cash recovery of `4,567 (from May salary) of every ChPT employee who accepted the gold coin.The employees’ resentment against the cash recovery for accepting a memento forced port authorities to defer the recovery and the decision has been kept in abeyance.Meanwhile Santhanam believes the denial of informations is a sign of a cover up. “We perceive the denial as a cover up to hide misappropriation of ChPT funds used for the celebration and our union would move further RTI appeals with the authorities to unearth details,” he said.“We also came to know that the port had distributed such coins to members of Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) engaged for port security at the time, but the coins were recovered within days without any reason,” he added.According to a rough estimate, ChPT may have bought a whopping 43kg of gold to distribute as 5gm coins to its 8,600-odd employees.Port authorities, however, attribute the recovery attempt to serious objections raised in an audit report sent to the Shipping Ministry on ChPT’s expenditures.According to a guideline issued by the Ministry to all major ports, there is a ceiling for the value of gifts given to employees and ChPT had violated the guideline by distributing the gold coins.It may be noted that then chief minister M Karunanidhi inaugurated the week-long anniversary celebrations of the ChPT on January 17, 2007 which was attended by scores of dignitaries including then Union Shipping Minister T R Baalu.
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