The alleged ineptness of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) in initiating criminal proceedings against employees involved in financial misappropriation cases is costing the board dearly.
Board sources told The Hindu here that delinquent employees are escaping punitive action by compensating the loss sustained to the board in gross violation of a High Court order and circulars issued by the board itself in this regard.
Quite often, disciplinary action in such cases is limited to a departmental inquiry and charges against the employees are dropped on recovering a meagre sum from them.
The Kerala High Court had issued an order on August 10, 2010 saying that the TDB should not allow delinquent persons to continue in service merely because they are compensating for the loss incurred by them.
“In every case of misappropriation a police inquiry shall be ordered. In any case we feel a proper departmental inquiry is required in all cases of lapses and financial irregularities.”
Board order
The board had also issued an order on January 16, 2015 saying that financial misappropriation cases should not be dropped on the basis of departmental action and recovery of loss and criminal prosecution proceedings should be initiated against them.
On finding that the court and board orders are observed more in the breach, the board had issued another order directing action against an employee in Karunagapally sub-group on December 14, 2016.
A board circular on February 1 mandated a certificate from employees applying for general transfers that they had not faced such charges in their career. Still, the alleged laxity in initiating action in financial misappropriation cases is setting the ground for such corrupt practices and also incurring heavy loss to the board.
An order issued by the Devaswom Commissioner on December 30 last recommending to avert criminal proceedings in a case in Karunagapally sub-group is being cited as a case in point.
Such orders are still being issued with impunity glossing over the gravity of the offences.
Officers deputed for investigating the cases also often fail to make a thorough estimate of the loss sustained and that makes the task easy for the accused, sources said.
