BBMP finds ₹213 cr. in its old accounts during financial spring cleaning

Civic body going through over 600 bank accounts it holds; ‘unspent amount’ used to clear bills

December 05, 2017 12:36 am | Updated 06:29 pm IST - Bengaluru

A financial spring cleaning exercise by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) threw up a pleasant surprise for the cash-strapped civic body. At a time when it claims that its coffers are running low, it stumbled upon unspent money of over ₹200 crore in around 50 ‘dormant bank accounts’ recently.

The BBMP has over 630 accounts in various banks across the city. To bring in financial prudence into the system, the civic body decided to consolidate its accounts and close the unnecessary ones. In the process, the Chief Accounts Officer (CAO) and his staff found these dormant accounts with five-digit account numbers.

“When we began verifying the list of 630 accounts, we found some five-digit account numbers. Clearly, these were before core banking was adopted by the banks. We approached the respective banks and found that these accounts had unspent amount of ₹213 crore,” the source said.

This “unspent amount” was used by the BBMP to clear a part of the garbage bills and Bescom bills for street lights, and repay a part of the HUDCO loan.

It is likely that the BBMP will unearth more forgotten funds as it sifts through hundreds of accounts. Sources in the office of the CAO told The Hindu that another 35 dormant accounts were found on Saturday. However, they are yet to ascertain the amount deposited in them.

The source said the BBMP is only “partially closing” unnecessary bank accounts. “We are maintaining minimum balance, as we may require the pass-sheet to verify some details at a later date. The pass-sheet may not be available, if the accounts are completely closed.” The source added that there were around 419 active bank accounts — those that see regular transactions.

Leader of the Opposition in the BBMP council Padmanabha Reddy said this only threw light on the BBMP’s financial indiscipline. “BBMP officials open accounts as they please and when they get transferred, their successors lose track of this account,” he said, adding that only a few officials should be empowered to open accounts.

BBMP’s CAO Mahadev said that the civic body will now write to all banks, including nationalised and private, to ascertain if the BBMP holds any account in its branches. “We are still verifying the list and are hopeful of finding more unspent money in the dormant accounts,” he said.

₹6.36 crore found in just one account

It was a casual remark about the BBMP once holding an account with one of the banks that led the civic body to begin verifying its numerous accounts.

The staff in the office of BBMP’s Chief Accounts Officer began going through the accounts the civic body held, which receives a bulk of property tax payments. “While going through the pass-sheet, we saw one account from which funds had stopped coming. When we approached the bank, we found that the account was in the name of the BBMP Commissioner and had ₹6.36 crore balance. “We later closed the account partially and transferred the money to the BBMP’s main account,” an official said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.