Rs 2,282cr bungling exposed in RD dept

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Bhubaneswar: The works wing of the state’s Rural Development (RD) department has spent Rs 2,282.06 crore for maintenance works between fiscal 2013-14 and 2016-17 without obtaining due approval from the authorities.
Formulation of annual Maintenance Plan for capital assets of the RD department in terms of the budgetary provision made under non-plan expenditure is mandatory on the part of each controlling officer.
As per the guidelines issued by the Finance Department on ‘‘Regulation of Expenditure out of Annual Budget,’’ each controlling officer, on receipt of budgetary allocation, must prepare an annual Maintenance Plan and submit it to the Administrative Department for approval on concurrence of the Finance Department.
However, in this case, the Rural Works (RW) wing of the RD department has utilised the huge amount of public money without following the guidelines, which has raised many questions like whether the engineering wing had done it to grab a share of percentage in the expenditure.
Noticing the irregularities in work, RD Secretary Bishnupada Sethi has issued a show cause notice to former engineer-in-chief (EIC) of Rural Works, Prabir Kumar Pradhan, following the approval of Chief Secretary AP Padhi.
‘‘It was observed that you have incurred expenditure of Rs 2,282.06 crore earmarked for maintenance works from 2013-14 to 2016-17 without approval of Maintenance Plan. Besides, you have also not submitted the annual maintenance plan for 2017-18 even after lapse of six months from the date of authorisation to incur expenditure out of annual budget although preparation of annual maintenance plan has also been made mandatory under Orissa Rural Road Maintenance Policy-2017,’’ Sethi said in his notice to Pradhan.
‘‘Such activity not only appears to be highly irregular in financial terms, but also amounts to insubordination and gross negligence in duty,’’ the secretary said.
The government has asked the former EIC to submit his reply to the notice by October 27 as to why action as deemed proper shall not be initiated against him for such lapses.
If the engineer will fail to explain within the deadline, it will be treated that the EIC is nothing to explain and the matter will be decided on its own merit.
Ironically, the government has recently transferred Pradhan from EIC but posted him as special secretary in the same department.
Reacting to the issue, Pradhan said, ‘‘I have not received the letter of secretary. After that I can comment. However, all works have been done as per the provision made in the annual budget.’’