The Standing Committee for Accounts of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, after finding several lacunae during an inspection here on Monday, sealed the offices of accounts and cheques sections of the BBMP.
Close on the heels of several scams that were unearthed by the Technical Vigilance Committee under Commissioner (TVCC), the committee smelt a rat in the funds released for works taken up by the Horticulture Department. The office of the Chief Accounts Officer (CAO) had issued cheques for Rs. 68 lakh for nine works, though they (works) had not been approved.
The inspection of the CAO's office revealed that the receipts and debits did not match and this gave room to suspicion that funds had been misappropriated. The committee also found that the auditing had been done for several years without maintaining balancing sheets and that the budget manual had been violated.
Shockingly, the committee found that the Chief Auditor of the State Accounts Department had taken up auditing only for name sake ever year. A close look at the audit report revealed that it has been several years since actual auditing had been taken up of the CAO's office. Though some financial reforms had been approved by the BBMP Council, the officials were yet to implement them.
Committee chairperson A.L. Shivakumar told The Hindu that there was no transparency and the several Acts governing the local body, including the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act and the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act, were followed only in violation. “Many files are not available. Several lapses have been detected, including files not being maintained properly,” he said.
He said that internal auditing has not been taken up for many years now. “The need of the hour is a complete overhaul of the Accounts Department in the BBMP. The Comptroller and Auditor General should be requested to take up a concurrent audit of the BBMP's accounts,” he added.
He also said that as this was the case in the BBMP's head office, the situation in the zonal offices may be even worse. “We need to take the first step. We must begin by insisting on an internal audit,” he added.
