Bhubaneswar: A recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has exposed the gross irregularities in various existing pension schemes of the state government. It comes at a time when several government departments are receiving strike notices from various sections of employees demanding retirement benefits.
Significantly, the CAG audit has revealed misappropriation of Old Age Pension (OAP) funds through tampering of official cheques and non-deposit of undisbursed OAP money.
“On scrutiny of OAP files in Brahmagiri Panchayat Samiti in January 2016, the audit observed that a sum of Rs 12 lakh was diverted from Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) account, contravening the Orissa Panchayat Samiti’s Accounting Procedure,” the report says.
The audit further noted that the Additional Block Development Officer-cum-Accounts Officer (ABDO) in charge issued a cheque for Rs 12 lakh on June 30, 2012 and asked the then Senior-clerk-cum-Cashier to deposit the same in the OAP account of Brahmagiri block.
Significantly, the audit found that although this misappropriation was detected in July 2012 and the official was arrested and suspended in August 2012 no steps were taken for recovery of the misappropriated amount from the then Senior Clerk-cum-Cashier and the Collector, Puri reinstated him in January 2014 while the inquiry was going on.
Interestingly, the administration informed the auditor in April 2016 that departmental proceedings were initiated for misappropriation of Rs 10 lakh and a vigilance case was initiated for misappropriation of Rs 5.02 lakh. In fact, the administration informed the CAG that action would be taken after receiving the final report.
However, the apex auditor of the government was not satisfied with the response. “The reply was not acceptable as the District Administrator didn’t take follow up measures to recover the misappropriated amount and permitted a loss of Rs 15.02 lakh to the government,” CAG observed.
Similarly, the audit also observed disbursement of OAP to deceased beneficiaries. In fact, the scrutiny of February 2016 disbursement registers and Cash Books for years 2009-10 to 2014-15 in eight Panchayat Samitis (PSs) by the CAG found that Rs 1.12 lakh was paid as pension and pension arrears to 113 beneficiaries of 24 gram panchayats.
Interestingly, the audit found that Disbursing Officers (DOs) didn’t verify the exact date of death and continued to make payments by recording the date of death wrongly in the disbursement register.
But, the Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Panchayati Raj Department stated in March 2016 that Rs 21,000 had been realised from the persons concerned of four PSs. However, the CAG noted that Rs 81,600 was yet to be recovered.
The CAG spotted gross irregularities in widow pension scheme too. According to the audit, the administration gave Widow Pension to non-widows too.
In Lahunipara Panchayat Samiti, there was a public complaint on the payment of Widow Pension (WP) to 338 beneficiaries. The Block Development Officer (BDO) conducted an inquiry through Panchayat Executive Officer, Kudeikala, about the payment of WP to 13 ineligible beneficiaries. But, the audit observed that BDO didn’t conduct the inquiry through the Extension Officer (EO) to ensure the eligibility of the applicants and both BDO and EO didn’t make a thorough check of the documents. When the matter was referred to the government, it was stated in September 2016 that out of the payments of Rs 76,800 an amount of Rs 58,000 was recovered from ineligible beneficiaries and recovery of the balance was in progress.
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