Chennai: In a stern warning to Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation’s (Tasmac) staffers tampering with the indents and favouring certain distillers and brewers, the liquor corporation placed two of its district managers under suspension on the charges of ‘misconduct’ on Friday.C Kesavan, district manager of Pudukottai, and R Sathyan, district manager of Vellore, were placed under suspension through a formal order issued by Tasmac managing director K Nanthakumar.“Disciplinary proceedings are contemplated against the said district manager under the provisions of the Tasmac Rules. And the competent authority is satisfied that it is necessary in the interest of the corporation to place the district manager under suspension pending disciplinary proceedings,” read the orders issued to both the district managers. Both of them have been instructed not to leave the district without prior permission.The suspension orders have also sent a loud and clear message to liquor manufacturers and suppliers that the decades-old method of raising indents has been done away with. As per the existing system, each liquor shop in the State will have to raise indents based on the daily sales for procuring liquor and the same is vetted by the district managers before being forwarded to the Tasmac headquarters and depots. The depots will dispatch the consignment based on a three-month weighted average.However, following complaints that some district managers manipulate the numbers to place more orders to favour certain brands, an inquiry was initiated. The management found these two district managers culpable. They also have been framed with other charges and suspended. The suspension orders come after a series of transfers of district managers citing administrative grounds.Though Tasmac procures liquor from 11 distilleries and six breweries in the State, a few players hold the huge market share. The Enforcement Directorate too pointed out manipulation in procurement tenders to favour certain brands after their searches last year, after which Tasmac attempted to reorganise the weighted average and capped sales of certain brands.Though end-to-end computerisation of Tasmac operations included automatic indents based on the real-time sales reports generated from server at the end of the business day, manual indents are still being continued. It may be noted that Pudukottai and Karur were the districts Tasmac has been contemplating to introduce automatic indent system to weed out malpractices in placing orders.
