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
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