Bhubaneswar: The recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India released by the Accountant General here regarding the audit of general and social sectors has hinted at a fraud by the state Health department during the Nabakalebara of Srimandir deities in 2015.
The auditor’s report said that a “fraudulent payment” of `44.19 lakh was made by the Puri CDMO from funds allocated for Nabakalebar festival by citing instances of payments to fictitious persons during the mega festival in Puri.
The report was prepared after going through hotel accommodation records of health department personnel deployed during the mega fest, and after scrutinising the bills prepared by the department.
It said, “The admissible amount for the actual stay of 433 persons worked out to only `34.65 lakh while `78.84 lakh was paid. Thus the payment of `44.19 lakh was made fraudulently.”
The CAG report said that in Hotel Pampa at Baliapanda, Puri, the occupancy register showed that 42 persons had stayed in 16 rooms and the rent of each room was `500. However, the hotel was paid `500 per person for 78 persons.
In Hotel Sureswari, only two persons had stayed in one room (Room No. 303) while the hotel was paid `500 per person for the stay of 166 persons. Hotel Harekrishna was paid `300 per person for the stay of 280 persons. However, the occupancy register of the hotel showed “no entry” in it. The audit team inspected the hotel along with the police and found that there was no provision for lodging in the hotel.
The CAG report also hinted at other anomalies in expenditures. It said, “Under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the length of 121 rural roads under the Core Network differed from the detailed project reports. Due to the mismatch, these roads were not approved for construction. As a result the state government lost Central assistance of `155.33 crore.”
It also said that against the target of providing water connection to 35 per cent households by 2017, only 3.70 per cent households were given connections and priority had to be given to surface water based piped water supply. However, out of the 15,357 piped water supply projects, only 1,471 (9.58 per cent) were surface water based.
The CAG also said that the decision to award the work of setting up Language Laboratories in 108 colleges of the state to a private firm on nomination basis was not in order. Further, after spending `22.88 crore on the project, there was no enrolment in 42 colleges where Language Laboratories were set up at a cost of `8.64 crore.