Bank accounts of all urban and rural local self-government institutions in the State are likely to be subjected to a thorough scrutiny soon.
The proposal for the scrutiny has come up in the wake of a recent inquiry into complaints of misappropriation of Rs.43.24 lakh between 2011 and 2016 at the Wandoor block panchayat in Malappuram district. The inquiry initiated by the Rural Development Commissioner had exposed embezzlement of Central and State funds devolved for welfare schemes for the indigent.
Officials who had conducted the probe had informed the government that this may not be a one-off case. The probe report said that funds parked in different bank accounts were allegedly misappropriated by the staff by interpolating counterfoils of bank receipts and manipulating panchayat accounts and statements.
Local Administration Department sources told The Hindu here that the Information Kerala Mission (IKM) which had developed an accounting software, Sankhya, for local governments, was entrusted with the task of identifying the operative and inoperative accounts of local governments as well as the funds deposited in such accounts.
Account norms violated
Though the Finance Department has laid clear norms for local governments for opening bank accounts, elected representatives allegedly tend to overlook such norms and unilaterally decide to open accounts for almost every scheme. Quite often they do not register the accounts in Sankhya as directed by the government, sources said.
The proliferation of accounts that could not be tracked often set the ground for fund mismanagement and corruption. Recently, a high-level meeting was held at the behest of the Chief Secretary to review progress of the IKM review of accounts, but the IKM personnel are understood to have informed the meeting that they could not make much headway since the banks were too busy with note exchange and addressing other issues thrown up by demonetisation. Hence, the meeting decided to grant more time for completing the process.
But the department is aware that the situation would be much more complex in corporations, municipalities, district panchayats and grama panchayats that handle more projects at any given time. Since the secretaries and other officials managing the accounts schemes get transferred, they may not be able to track the details of the unspent funds. A thorough scrutiny of the accounts has been mooted. A direction in this regard would be issued soon, the sources said.
