A day after the Standing Committee for Accounts sealed the offices of accounts and cheques sections in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), a red-faced ruling party (BJP) brought pressure on the committee chairperson to revoke his decision and remove the seals.
During an inspection of the office of the Chief Accounts Officer (CAO) on Monday, the committee found several lacunae and decided to seal the offices. The committee found that the CAO had issued cheques for Rs. 68 lakh for nine works, even though they (works) had not been approved.
According to senior BJP councillors, the party had been embarrassed by the committee chairperson A.L. Shivakumar's “unilateral decision” to seal the offices. They maintained that while the panel chairpersons may investigate, check records and seek more information, they could not seal offices. “Only the Commissioner has the power to take such decisions.”
They claimed that the seals on the offices were opened after discussions with the senior party leaders and president of the city unit.
It may be recalled that Monday's the inspection revealed that the receipts and debits did not match, which gave room to suspicion that funds had been misappropriated.
The committee had found that the auditing had been done for several years without maintaining balancing sheets and that the budget manual had been violated.
