Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Apr 24: A multi-crore scam has surfaced in Jammu and Kashmir Police department where security related expenditure for hiring of vehicles for the conduct of Parliamentary and Assembly elections in 2014 has been swindled by 68 Superintendents of Police, Senior Superintendents of Police and Commandants across the State.
These officers have shown scooters, motor-cycles, bulldozers, tractors, own private cars, condemned vehicles and Government vehicles hired as taxis and buses and swindled money from the “Security Related Expenditure (SRE)” of Rs 115.68 crore provided by the Government of India for “Carriage of Constabulary and Hiring of Vehicles” to the Jammu and Kashmir Police during Parliamentary and Assembly elections 2014.
The graft has been exposed by the Central Audit Wing of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) during the audit of a sample of nine Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) who are among 68 DDOs who got over Rs 116 crore from the Police Headquarters for “Carriage of Constabulary and Hiring of Vehicles” under “Security Related Expenditure (SRE)”.
A letter (COCHOV/2015-16/07 dated 28-03-2016) written by Deputy Accountant General of the CAG to Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police along with 162-page report says that CAG has found Rs 6.09 crore irregularities and misappropriation by 9 DDOs of the funds meant for “Carriage of Constabulary and Hiring of Vehicles”.
According to report, major embezzlement and misappropriation of Rs 2.0828 crore has been done by then SSP Police Control Room Srinagar. He had hired 3463 vehicles, out of which Audit team has checked 2348 and found 368 vehicles as fictitious. The officer had drawn money against two Government vehicles as well and shown them hired as taxis.
The then SSP PCR Jammu has done embezzlement and misappropriation of Rs 1.6272 crore. He had hired 3040 vehicles, out of which Audit team has checked 2086 and found 237 vehicles as fictitious. The officer had drawn money against three Government vehicles as well and has drawn double payment against 20 hired vehicles.
The report says that besides then SSP PCR Srinagar and Jammu, then SSPs of Jammu, Kathua, Samba, Baramulla, Kupwara, Bandipora and Staff Officer to Additional Director General Armed Police have also hired cars, buses and embezzled and misappropriated Rs 4.1458 crore.
The report says that these 9 DDOs had hired 8, 996 vehicles for the conduct of Parliamentary and Assembly elections. The Audit team has checked 5, 957 vehicles and found 755 as fictitious. They have drawn payment against 8 Government vehicles by showing them as taxis and against 20 hired vehicles they have drawn double payments.
The report suggests that records with regard to vehicles hired by the sampled nine DDOs, were verified by the audit against the vouchers of payments available in the Accountant General Office and the vehicle registration records of the respective Regional Transport Offices (RTOs).
The hired taxis when verified with the RTOs in different districts have shown that a large number of hired taxis are actually scooters like Bajaj, Chetak, LML Vespa, Activa and motor cycles like Passion, Bullet, Hero Honda. Even the money was withdrawn against Mahindra Tractors and Bulldozers and they have been shown hired as carriers for constabulary.
In few cases, the cars that were hired and registration number of vehicles shown and against which payments have been made, actually are condemned vehicles like Tata Sumo bearing No. JKB 5826. In certain other cases, registration numbers of vehicles against which payment has been drawn, have yet not been allotted by the RTOs.
The report says that the SSP PCR Jammu had drawn Rs 1.40 lakh twice (Tr.Vr.vNov557 dated 31.3.2015) as charges of the vehicles hired from an agency against two bills for the same period. The payment of both the bills had been made to the agency by a cheque (No 259985 dated 21.4.2015) resulting in double payment of Rs 1.40 lakh.
“The analysis of the data of five DDOs has shown that 86 private/non-commercial vehicles had been hired by them against which Rs 30.15 lakh had been paid as hire charges”.
“Against the due amount of income tax of Rs 114.74 lakh on the total amount of Rs 57.37 crore paid as hire charges of vehicles by the nine DDOs, Rs 107.99 lakh had been deducted from the bills resulting in short deduction of tax of Rs 6.75 lakh. The short deduction was due to the fact that five of the nine test-checked DDOs had not deducted the requisite quantum of tax from the bills of the suppliers”, report reveals.
The report says that Police Headquarters had directed all the DDOs that all types of hired vehicles must be de-hired by or before 24.12.2014. “Audit observed that the SSP PCR Jammu had retained 771 hired vehicles beyond the prescribed date (24.12.2014). The department had made the irregular payment of Rs 22.23 lakh to the Transport Agencies for the extended period”, it adds.
“PHQ had authorized 7,266 vehicles for deployment in the Assembly elections, 2014 by 29 DDOs. Audit observed that against the authorization of 7,266 vehicles, a total of 9,310 vehicles had been hired by the 29 DDOs; an excess of 2,044 vehicles. This resulted in an avoidable excess expenditure of Rs 25.89 lakh per day since the day wise details of the excess hired vehicles was not available therefore the total amount in question could not be worked out. The regularization of excess hired vehicles had not been obtained as of January 2016”, the report adds.
The report reveals that the Audit observed that then SSPs Baramulla and Bandipora had drawn Rs 104.56 lakh hire charges of vehicles for the merely on the list of vehicles prepared by the department without any supporting bill of the Transporters, thus rendering the payment irregular.
“Besides it, the SSP Bandipora had passed/accepted the bills of the four transporters (Ten vouchers) for an amount of Rs 47.07 lakh in lump sum for Assembly election without mentioning the details of the vehicles provided for hiring, thus the expenditure could not be vouchsafed in audit”, report says.
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