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Sunday, March 29, 2015


CAG uncovers MNREGA’s fake bank accounts, SICOP’s land loot, Fire deptt’s embezzlements

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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Jammu, March 28: Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s report on performance of the State government departments and Public Sector Undertakings in Jammu and Kashmir, tabled in Legislature on Friday, has exploded a many myths of cleanliness, transparency and accountability during Omar Abdullah’s government in 2009-2013.

Accountant General Khalid Bin Jamal revealed at a news presence here on Saturday that the CAG report-2014 on the State government departments would be studied by Legislature’s Public Accounts Committee [PAC] and another one on PSUs by the Committee on Public Undertakings [COPU] and these two lawfully competent panels would in turn take up different flagged issues with the government departments and PSUs for necessary action. He clarified it was not directly CAG’s constitutional mandate to press the government for taking criminal cognizance of the fund embezzlements and other scandals investigated by the auditors. Nevertheless, AG’s office would see what role it could play in view of last year’s precedence when former Principal AG for J&K, Dr Subhash Chander Pandey, submitted a report on the infamous Roshni scam to the State’s Chief Vigilance Commissioner Kuldeep Khoda for criminal cognizance of the matters investigated.

CVC in turn referred these matters to Vigilance Commissioner Sheikh Owais Ahmad whose organisation held criminal investigations and filed FIR in at least 6 matters involving top ranking IAS and KAS officers. Contrary to the wide public perception that all the influential IAS and KAS officers, enjoying high level political and bureaucratic clout from Srinagar to New Delhi, had been either spared or taken off the hook under pressure, Vigilance Organisation has maintained in a PIL in J&K High Court that it was discharging its duty without fear or favour.

Mr Jamal revealed that during the process of scrutiny, auditors observed that the officials of the State Rural Development Department had swindled funds of the flagship scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme [MNREGA] in the investigated Sopore and Wagora and blocks. He said that the funds were found syphoned off the public exchequer through “fake bank accounts of the fake and non-existing job card holders”. The accounts were operating fraudulently in the local branches of a Bank without scrutiny under RBI’s ‘Know Your Customer’ guidelines.

FAKE BANK ACCOUNTS

In the sample cases taken up by the auditors, as many as 309 bank accounts were found “totally fake” in the name of “fake and non-existent job card holders”. Huge amount of Rs 40.24 lakh was found transferred to these fake accounts by RDD officials and finally withdrawn and swindled. Claims of over 27,000 man-days of work under MNREGA in these particular investigated cases were found “totally fudged”.

 “Instead of crediting wages directly into the bank accounts of the job card holders in BDO Sopore and Wagora in District Baramulla, the funds were released to the Panchayat Halqas through cheques for further disbursement to the workers by deposit in respective bank accounts during the period 2011-14. However, 309 bank accounts to which the Panchayat Secretaries/ Gram Sevaks claimed to have credited wages to the tune of Rs 35.52 lakh for 27,558 mandays of MNREGA works, were found to be non-existing in the Bank records. Also in the case of 55 bank accounts, no entries of credit/debit existed even though the Panchayat Halqa records showed that Rs 4.72 lakh had been credited into these bank accounts as payment of wages for 4,218 mandays”, says a para of the CAG report summary.

FIRE & EMERGENCY FRAUD

Mr Jamal said that a cashier of Fire & Emergency Services Department in Kulgam was found to have swindled an amount of Rs 18.89 lakh from the salaries of the officials. “This amount was fraudulently drawn on the monthly establishment bills during the period from March 2012 to November 2013 by inflating the totals in the bills. The access amount thus drawn was credited to the Bank account of the acting cashier (Rs 9.82 lakh) of the Command and to the Bank accounts of three non-existent / fictitious employees (Rs 7.07 lakh). The fate of balance amount of Rs two lakh could not be traced/ verified”, said the CAG report summary.

SICOP’S BANDERBAANT

The CAG auditors have observed that huge balance of Rs 556.10 crore of Jammu and Kashmir Small Industries Development Corporation Ltd [SICOP] appearing under Inter-unit Adjustment Account remained “unreconciled/un-adjusted ending March 14”.

It has been observed that land had been allotted to the entrepreneurs on the basis of favouritism and in gross violation of project restrictions under which only 2 to 4 kanals could be allotted to an individual unit.

According to the CAG report, SICOP’s executive committee has allotted “without discussion” 80 Kanals of land under Integrated Infrastructure Development [IDD] Scheme at Industrial Estate Govindsar, in Kathua district, to a single entrepreneur, M/S Jackson Ltd, while as 20 Kanals each have been allotted to M/S Vinay Corporation Ltd and M/S Fena Detergent Private Ltd besides more than 4-Kanal plots to 8 other entrepreneurs.

“It was seen in audit that contrary to DPR, one plot comprising 100 Kanals was allotted to a single entrepreneur, M/S Nicer Paper Mills, thereby defeating the very objective of the Scheme to promote MSME units”, says a paragraph in the CAG report. It has also documented how works worth crores of Rupees have been allotted to favoured individuals and firms in total violation of the procedure and Financial codes on pick-and-choose basis.

END

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