Despite the government’s directive to deposit money in treasury instead of bank accounts, most of the local bodies, including the Kozhikode Corporation, still maintain multiple bank accounts.
First Published Dec 3, 2022, 7:25 AM IST
Kozhikode: Neglecting the instructions to check the accounts of the local government bodies at least once a month gave Punjab National Bank manager Rajil an opportunity to siphon crores from the Kozhikode Corporation account. The directive to deposit money in treasury accounts instead of bank accounts was also violated. Kozhikode Corporation has decided to check the account information on a daily basis in the context of fraud.
Kozhikode Corporation has around 50 accounts in various banks including Punjab National Bank. Out of these 7 accounts Punjab National Bank manager Rijil siphoned money. The information is coming out that it has been months since Rijil started transferring money from various accounts of the corporation to his father Ravindran’s account in the Punjab National Bank. Rajil was transferring money from his father’s account to his own account in Axis Bank. But the corporation authorities did not know about this.
The government has suggested that the accounts of the local government bodies should be audited at least once a month. If this instruction had been followed, the fraud would have been detected in the beginning. Last year’s audit report on the shortcomings of the accounts section of the Kozhikode Corporation says that although weekly bank statements should be taken to ensure that all payments have been received, such an action does not appear to have taken place. There is a method of calling the banks and asking whether the received checks have cleared. Because of this, there is no way to check whether the money has been credited to the current account, the audit alleged. When this was pointed out, the mayor’s response yesterday was that the account would be checked every day from now on to solve these problems.
Despite the government directive to deposit money in treasury instead of bank accounts, most of the local government bodies including the Kozhikode Corporation still maintain several bank accounts. The corporation has started thinking about making a change in this way in the wake of the scam. There are also suspicions that one or two people may have the criminal mastery to siphon off crores from accounts that have not had significant transactions for a long time. But it cannot be denied that the directives issued by the audit department and the government have been thrown into the wind from time to time, which has made it difficult for all these fraudsters.
Last Updated Dec 3, 2022, 7:41 AM IST
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