Amritsar, May 3: In the interim report of the Independent Review and Forensic Audit (IFRA), a scam of over Rs 100 crore has been unearthed in the Amritsar’s Municipal Corporation, Improvement Trust and Sewerage Board offices.
The embezzlement of money in the three urban local bodies took place between April 2007 and March 2017. The third party audit team was led by the department’s Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO), Sudeep Manak.
Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said this partial audit had divulged a multi-crore scam and the complete report would be forwarded to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to initiate further action. Sidhu said the audit of other state civic bodies too would be conducted soon.
The partial audit has divulged that cash books didn’t reconcile with the bank statements since February 2008, multiple accounts were in operation to siphon off public money, property tax collected from residents was not deposited in the exchequer and fake Provident Fund transactions were made in connivance with officials.
Besides this, no accountability was set for the MC’s properties that were rented or leased out and similar was the scenario with the advertisement revenue in connivance with private contractors.
Though the norms demand that a department should maintain a maximum of three bank accounts, the inquiry disclosed that 71 accounts of improvement trust and 52 of the MC have surfaced so far.
Since March 2013, all ULBs were directed to adopt a “double entry accounting system” to ensure a fair and transparent transaction. However, to date, “single entry accounting system” is in operation to cheat and make the money-tracking difficult.
In the Improvement Trust, since 2010, transactions have not been recorded. All e-tendering data has been “lost”. Similarly, files of the MC and Improvement Trust were found to be incomplete and key documents like contractor agreement, site inspection, material test reports, bidding correspondence, completion maps and measurement books were misplaced.
Out of 65,550 cash receipts (G8) issued against the realisation of property tax, 8,096 receipts for the period between September 2013 and March 2017 were not deposited in the bank. The presumptive loss is estimated to be Rs 2.42 crore.
Similarly, nearly Rs 1.2 crore was misappropriated from the Provident Fund account through 27 transactions (2015-2017). Payments were made to fictitious employees.
The advertisement department of the MC has an outstanding revenue of Rs 6.5 crore against unipoles, gantries, pole kiosks and elevated road pillars. Also, a sum of Rs 3.48 crore rent was outstanding from 240 shops of Improvement Trust.
On March 31, 2017, a whopping amount of Rs 7.41 crore was advanced to various employees/department, but it has not been recovered or adjusted to date.
In the Sewerage Board Department, work of the STP in South East Zone was held up while accounting the contractor’s liability amounting to Rs 35 crore.
Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
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