NEW DELHI, March 8: Union Minister for Agriculture, Food and Consumer Affairs Sharad Pawar has ordered an inquiry into the disclosure of Dow Chemical to the US watchdog Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) about its improper payments for registration of its pesticides in India. The investigation will be carried out by a joint-secretary level officer from the Vigilance wing of the Agriculture Ministry.

“This is a startling but a very serious disclosure, and the inquiry that has been ordered will try to get to the depth of this disclosure. Since the reports indicate involvement of some key officials at the Central level, our first focus will be to get into the irregularities at the apex body,” P K Mishra, Secretary, Agriculture, told The Indian Express.

To begin with, the investigation team through the Ministry of External Affairs would make a request to the SEC asking for details of submissions by Dow Chemical to it, said the Secretary.

The inquiry was ordered last week following disclosures by Dow Chemical that to “expedite” registration of its pesticides in India between 1996 and 2001, its senior management in India approved and made “irregular payments” to government officials, at the Centre and in states, including an influential member of the registration committee of the Central Insecticide Board, the Agriculture Ministry’s apex regulatory authority responsible for approving pesticides.

This startling disclosure appears in a February 13 ruling by the SEC, which got Dow to pay $325,000 in penalty after the chemical giant detailed the steps it had taken to investigate and expose the corruption and take clean-up action.

Dow had conducted an internal investigation and voluntarily approached the commission.