A invoice rip-off by way of which about ₹15.28 crore was siphoned off by contractors in connivance with accounts officers on deputation to the Water Assets Division has come to gentle in Karnataka Neeravari Nigam (KNN), leading to suspension of seven officers.
As many as eight pretend payments had been raised between February 2019 and November 2020 amounting to ₹16.61 crore by officers taking care of accounts, and about ₹15.28 crore had been drawn by two contractors from Letter of Credit score (LoC) financial savings utilizing pretend payments and faux paperwork, preliminary investigations a few weeks in the past has revealed.
The incident has been reported from the Hipparagi Barrage Canal Division, Athani, Belagavi district. The vouchers which were raised to create pretend payments don’t match with the works taken up by the KNN, and two contractors A.Y. Mulla and R.B. Shekh of Bagalkot have been recognized as beneficiaries of the rip-off. Tenders had been by no means referred to as and works weren’t executed, however funds had been made utilizing pretend paperwork, the investigation report states.
“As per the prevailing pointers, the payments are raised by the Assistant Engineer and the Junior Engineer on the subdivision stage, which can attain the Chief Engineer’s workplace after due diligence over work carried out and high quality, amongst others, at numerous ranges. It’s then forwarded to the Chief Accounts Officer, who after accounting diligence releases the cash to the contractors,” division sources defined. “Nevertheless, on this case, the invoice was raised within the accounts part with out the data of discipline officers and instantly paid to contractors.”
Chief Accounts Officers M.M. Mirza and S.N. Varadaraju, Accounts Superintendents D.C. Sheela and Vinayaka Arkashali, Accounts Officer Deepak A. Moodalagi, and First Grade Accounts Assistants Anil Jadhav and Sharanappa have been saved below suspension.
Sources stated that whereas the KNN had determined to divest the powers of clearing the payments from the Chief Accounts Officer and handed it over to the Government Engineers’ workplace, the identical must be carried out within the different three water firms the place related scams may emerge.
Paperwork not in workplace
The interior investigation workforce couldn’t lay its arms on a number of paperwork which can be to be constructed as a part of cost procedures since they weren’t in any workplace information, and the contractors didn’t cooperate within the investigations, the official doc states.
Following the unearthing of the rip-off in October, the State Authorities on November 20 ordered seizure of all financial institution accounts of the accused whereas the Division of Stamps and Registration has been directed to stall any sale of immovable properties registered of their or within the names of members of the family. Prison circumstances have been filed in opposition to them.
