Rs.90 crores under TASP and SCP( S.C.) diverted by Govt. of Odisha for construction of Rural Godowns

Amount of Rs.90 crores under TASP and Special Component Plan ( S.C.) has been diverted by Govt. of Odisha  for construction of Rural Godowns  at PACS level  from 2013-14 to 2017-18

Dear friends

Having heard  about decision of State Government   for construction of  godowns  at PACS level ( Primary Agriculture  Co-operative Society)  through the state and engagement of NABCONS ( NABARD Consultancy Services Private Limited , a company registered  under the Indian Companies Act  having its office at Mumbai  as  consultant ,  I had  submitted  RTI Application  to the Department of Co-operation, Govt. of Odisha  seeking information about  source of fund  mobilised  by Govt. for  the said work  and fund utilised and details  of agreement  signed with NABCONS.

On 13.4.18, the PIO, office of Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Odisha provided partly information. While examining the information, it was found that  the agreement  was executed  on 29.10.2013 between  RCS  as “CLIENT”, NABCONS as consultancy agency  and  Odisha State  Agriculture Marketing  Board ( OSAMB)  as  Executing  Agency.

On query  about  details of  fund mobilised  from  various sources for the said project work, the PIO  has provided the following information.

Year	Sanctioned  amount  ( Rs.)			Total  ( Rs.)	Remarks
	Special  Component Plan ( S.C.)	Tribal Areas Sub-plan ( TSAP)	Gen.
2013-14	13,72,00,000	17,54,00,000	51,74,00,000	83,00,00,000
2014-15				150,00,00,000	( surrendered  the total amount  as there was little scope for utilisation
2015-16	15,00,00,000	21,00,00,000	54,00,00,000	90,00,00,000
2016-17	1,70,00,000	2,30,00,000	6,00,00,000	10,00,00,000
2017-18	7,65,00,000	10,35,00,000	27,00,00,000	45,00,00,000	Sanction order has not yet been received in the office.

UC Details  for construction of godowns  as on 31.12.2017.

Year	Released amount	Remarks
2014-15	83,00,00,000.00
2015-16	90,00,00,000.00
2016-17	10,00,00,000.00
Total	183,00,00,000.00
Utilised  as on 31.12.2017	139,05,80,164.00
Balance	43,94,19,836.00
Provision made during 2017-18	45,00,00,000.00	Sanction order has not yet been received  from Govt.

N.B.- Source of General Component  ( whether  from NABARD  as loan or State Budget or from Central Govt.)  has not been provided  by the PIO.

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date- 26.4.18

Misappropriation of Rs. 66.41 lakhs in PDS commodity by officials of Choudwar Municipality

Misappropriation of Rs. 66.41 lakhs in sale proceeds of PDS commodity by officials of Choudwar Municipality during 2014-16, exposed by CAG

Dear friends

 Earlier, use of RTI has exposed many scams and irregularities   in implementation of various Govt. schemes and programme in the state.  But CAG Audit has started exposing how Corruption and misappropriation of public fund has become of order of the day in the State Government. Extract of CAG expose about Misappropriation of Rs. 66.41 lakhs in sale proceeds of PDS commodity by officials of Choudwar Municipality during 2014-16 is presented below.

As per Rule 25 of the Odisha Municipal Accounting Rule 2012, the collection offices and collection centres shall record the particulars of each receipt in the collection register on a daily basis.  The amount collected during the day shall be accounted based on summary statements, through a cash receipt voucher or bank receipt voucher.

Choudwar Municipality had distributed wheat, rice and kerosene oil under Public Distribution Centre (PDS)   to ration card holders through different sale centres.  Wheat and rice are procured from District Civil Supply Corporation, cuttack and kerosene from agents appointed by Civil Supply Department.  Municipal employees in charge of sale centres received the commodities from department godown. The sale proceeds had to be deposited with the cashier of the municipality.  The rate of distribution of PDS wheat was Rs. 7.00 per kg up to November 2015 and Rs. 1.00 per kg from December 2015.  Similarly, the Municipality distributed the kerosene oil at Rs. 14.11 to Rs. 14.43 per litre.

Scrutiny of PDS Register of the Municipality (November 2016) showed that there was no separate cash book for PDS transactions prior to 2015-16.  Test check of stock/issue register of wheat for the period 2014-16 was done along with deposit registers on sale proceeds. It was noticed that there was a closing stock of 230.02 qtls  and 957.89 qtls of wheat as on 31 March 2014 with Sri Ruturaj Muduli, peon, and Sri P.K.Mansingh, Zamadar respectively. They had received 3,658.50 qtls and 6,475.73 qtls of wheat respectively during April 2014 to March 2016. Sri Muduli  had deposited  the sale proceeds  of 926.28 quintals of wheat worth  Rs. 6.50 lakh. The sale proceeds of remaining quantity of wheat of 6.087.07 qtls amounting to Rs.44.70 lakh were not deposited by Sri Muduli and Sri Mansingh.  They had also not shown it as closing stock.

Similarly, stock/issue register of kerosene oil for the period 2014-16 and the related deposit registers on sale proceeds was test-checked in audit.  It showed that there was closing stock of kerosene oil of 5,699 ltrs. and 10,247 ltrs with Sri Muduli and Sri Mansingh respectively as on 31.3.2014.  Sri Muduli and Sri Mansingh were issued with 1, 20,696 ltrs. and 3,56,298 ltrs. of lerosene oil  respectively  during 2014-16.  However  they had deposited Rs. 48.21 lakh as sale proceeds of 3, 39,582 ltrs. of kerosene with the cashier. The sale proceeds of remaining 1, 53,358 ltrs. of kerosene  amounting  to Rs.21.71 lakh had not been deposited  by Sri Muduli  and Sri Mansingh. The officials were required to deposit Rs.98.00 lakh as the total sale proceeds of wheat and kerosene oil. Against this, they had deposited Rs. 31.59 lakhs only with the cashier. The balance amount of Rs.66.41 lakh retained by them was treated as misappropriation of Government money. 

It was also noticed that  the provision of  Orissa Municipal  Accounting  Rules  regarding  daily  accounting  of all collections  were not followed.  There were discrepancies  in issue  and stock register which were  not monitored  on a regular basis.  Such failure of  internal  control mechanism  paved the way  for the officials  to misappropriate  sale proceeds of commodities.  The Executive Officer, Choudwar Municipality  instituted  ( march 2016)  departmental proceedings  against  both the officials for misappropriating  PDS sale proceeds  of Rs. 22.12 lakh . the findings  in the proceedings  were accepted  by the convicted officials  and they deposited  Rs. 15.45 lakh.  However, CAG  audit noticed  ( November 2016)  that  the calculation  made by accountant  of the Municipality  in March 2016  of the sum misappropriated  was incorrect. The actiual  amount misappropriated  was Rs. 66.41 lakh . hence Rs.50.96 lakh  was yet to be recovered  from these two officials  by Choudwar Municipality. Though CAG  had drawn attention of secretary, Housing and Urban Development, Govt. of Odisha, no response has been received  so far. No action has been  taken  since last one year to recover  Rs. 50. 96 lakh  from these two corrupt officials.

In this case inspite of vigilance investigation  and interrogation on above 2 employee but case is not taking any momentum since then .

Date – 20.04.18

  

Implementation of MGNREGA in Odisha- A Disaster (Bulletin-2)

Implementation of MGNREGA in Odisha- A  Disaster

(Bulletin-2)

Inadequate Human Resource Management

Dear friends

As per the guidelines, a society for MGNREGS ( Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) was formed  ( February 2007)  with four thematic experts, four specialists, four programme Manager, six programme associates, four programme assistants and six social audit managers. Similarly,  the Govt. also declared  that one additional Programme Officer (APIO), Computer Assistant, Account Assistant, two MGNREGS Assistants ( MgA) were to be appointed  for smooth implementation of  the scheme at Panchayat Samiti level.  One Gram Rozgar Sewak (GRS) and Gram Panchayat Technical Assistant (GPTA)  were to be appointed  at GP level.

CAG has audited ( 2012 to 2017)  details of   steps  taken   by Govt. in respect of appointment of personnel  which are required  to enforce  implementation of NREGA  in Odisha.  It  was observed  that MGNREGS society  was functioning  with deficient manpower  as 14 out of  28 required  officials  were not appointed . There was no Assistant Computer programmer in 40 PSs, no GRS in 688 GPs and only one MGNREGS Assistant in 192 PSs against the requirement of two. As all the  above mentioned posts are contractual, the officials getting better employment opportunity leave the job. 

Maintenance of MGNREGS accounts, grievance redressal, on-line entry of muster roll, verification and issue of Job Cards were not carried out  as per the prescribed procedure. The reason is  dfailure of Government  to provide adequate manpower  at the state  and unit level. Because of it, the overall performance of the scheme suffered in the state without yielding any  tangible results.

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date-17.4.18

Implementation of MGNREGA in Odisha- A Malicious Deception

Implementation of MGNREGA in Odisha- A Malicious Deception  with big failure

(Bulletin-1)

Chief Minister has made SEGC permanent Dysfunctional in the state

Dear friends

Under UPA-1 and UPA-2, the Central Government has enacted a number of progressive laws known as People’s Laws in the country. To name few are Right to Information Act 2005, National Food Security Act 2013, Forest Rights Act 2008, Right to Education Act 2009,  prevention of Domestic violence Act, Whistle-blower Protection Act 2011, Lokpal and Lokayukta Act 2013 etc. Most progressive law was Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2006 (MGNREGA). The primary objective of the Act was to provide social protection. It was to enhance livelihood security by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed work to interested Job seekers in a year.

Under the Act, there are numerous provisions for monitoring of the implementation of the schemes and redressal of grievances of the people starting from GP to state level. The State Employment Guarantee Council (SEGC) is one of them.  Section 12 of MGNREGA stipulates constitution of SEGC at State level. It’s function is to advise the State Government in all matters concerning the scheme  and its implementation, review the monitoring and grievance redressal. This body is also empowered to prepare annual report to be laid down before the state legislature. In Odisha it was constituted in November 2007 under the Chairmanship of the Chief Minister. Minister, Panchayat Raj Department was the ex officio Vice-chairman and 12 officials and seven non-officials were also the members. As per Para 4 of the OREGC Rules, SEGC was to be reconstituted in every three years.

CAG has made   performance audit of the functioning of SEGC led by Nabin Patnaik, Chief Minister, Odisha.  It was observed that State Employment Guarantee Council (SEGC) had not been reconstituted properly within stipulated time framework. As per Para 4 of the OREGC Rules, SEGC was to be reconstituted in every three years. But SEGC was reconstituted in November 2012 after delay of 23 months and again in 2016 after a delay of seven months.  Further as per para 6(2) of OREGC Rules, SEGC had to sit at least once in six months to transact business. However it was seen that SEGC had held only four meetings since its constitution to November 2007 as against required 18 meetings. The reason is due to constant absence and non-availability of the ex-officio  Chairman ( Chief Minister) to attend the meetings.  As a result, the SEGC   could approve the annual administrative report of MGNREGS in the state for the years 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12 only in January 2013. The annual administrative reports for the years 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 were approved only in August 2016.   As the meeting were not held due to absence of Chief Minister, large number of grievances was seen pending   at state level. Ultimately, SEGC could not function effectively because of non-availability of Chairman (Chief Minister) to attend the meeting.

It is to be noted here that there is no such provision under the Act that only Chief Minister would be chairman of the Council. The State Government could have appointed anybody to lead SEGC. This arrangement was done by bureaucracy only to satisfy  Chief Minister who is hardly aware  about any law implemented  in our state.

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date-14.4.18

( Source- Report of CAG on Local Bodies for the year ended March 2017)

Why Govt. Health System is destined to suffer in Odisha

Why  Govt. Health System is destined to suffer in Odisha

Status of all categories of Doctors as on 1.3.2018

Dear friends

Recently, the State Govt. has declared plethora of health schemes starting from providing free medicine to patients and free dialysis for kidney patients to SAMPURNA Yojana for total control of MMR and IMR in the state. These schemes are propagated and highlighted to show the Govt.’s commitment to ensure effective health delivery system to the people in the state. Moot question is despite much-hyped scheme and budgetary allocation for health service, why the people are deprived of getting proper treatment in the hospitals.  Why health system is still disaster in Odisha.     The disastrous situation in Hospitals is due to absence of doctors and para-medical staff  in the hospitals.  Though infrastructure is available, technical staff is not available to handle it. Though free medicine is available, no doctor is there to prescribe medicine and treat the patients.

RTI Application was filed to the PIO, Dept. of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Odisha seeking information about details of doctor, medical staff, and situation of infrastructure in Govt. hospitals in Odisha. On 7.4.18, the PIO has supplied the information about status of all categories of doctors in Govt. Hospitals in different districts as on 1.3.2018. 

·  50% of  post of Doctors are vacant  in Odisha.

·  303 doctors are absconding. They got relieved but not joined without any information to Govt. Many doctors have left job without information to Govt. Astonishingly, the State Govt. has not dismissed them.

Status of all categories of Doctors as on 1.3.2018

Sl.No	District	Sanctioned	Position
			Regular	Ad-hoc	Contractual	Corpus fund	Total position	Vacancy	% of Vacancy
1	Angul	197	71	13	14		98	99	50.25
2	Balasore	285	110	12	25		147	138	48.42
3	Baragarh	220	80	11	9		100	120	54.55
4	Bhadrak	180	61	9	9		79	101	56.11
5	Bolangir	248	112	15	17		144	104	41.94
6	Boudh	95	44	4	0		48	47	49.47
7	Cuttack	308	161	12	46		219	89	28.90
8	Deogarh	86	33	0	5		38	48	55.81
9	Dhenkanal	193	69	12	10		91	102	52.85
10	Gajapati	137	55	6	20		81	56	40.88
11	Ganjam	399	121	8	29		158	241	60.40
12	Jagatsingh Pur	157	60	7	10		77	80	50.96
13	Jajpur	207	69	16	29		114	93	44.93
14	Jharsuguda	113	36	4	14		77	80	50.96
15	Kalahandi	249	78	17	31		126	123	49.40
16	Kandhamal	216	80	25	16		121	95	43.98
17	Kendrapara	171	60	13	8		81	90	52.63
18	Keonjhar	273	112	9	15		136	137	50.18
19	Khurda	211	98	11	23		132	79	37.44
20	Koraput	258	83	25	38		146	112	43.41
21	Malkangiri	141	50	8	2	18	78	63	44.68
22	Mayurbhanj	407	151	9	45		205	202	49.63
23	Nawarangpur	190	53	16	31	2	102	88	46.32
24	Nayagarh	188	57	8	8		73	115	61.17
25	Nuapara	116	42	8	4	4	58	58	50.00
26	Puri	240	89	5	23		117	123	51.25
27	Rayagada	190	59	26	18	2	105	85	44.74
28	Sambalpur	195	88	5	11		104	91	46.67
29	Sonepur	127	54	9	6		69	58	45.67
30	Sundargarh	289	109	7	19		135	154	53.29
31	Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar	175	108	5	6		119	56	32.00
32	RGH, Rourkela	75	33	1	0		34	41	54.67
	Medical College	78	1	0	0		1	77	100
	Sub-total	6614	2487	336	541	26	3390	3224	48.75
33	State HQ	105	66				66	39	37.75
34	Relieved  but not joined		102
35	Long leave and unauthorised absent		201

More information will be posted very soon.

Pradip  Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date- 13.4.18