Engineers tasked with implementing various welfare schemes towards integrated socio-economic development of the tribal population residing in the scheduled areas in Odisha were found to have spent ₹149 crore from the government account for personal expenses, including paying house rent, insurance premium and electricity bills.

The Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for the period ended March 2023 on compliance audit-civil, which was laid in the Odisha Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, hinted at large-scale irregularities in Integrated Tribal Development Agencies (ITDAs) created for focused interventions in tribal areas.

According to reports, bank accounts were opened by the ITDAs in the names of assistant engineers (AEs) and junior engineers (JEs) for remitting the cost of works. However, the audits find suspected misappropriation of government funds.

The CAG had conducted an audit in 11 selected ITDAs during the period 2018-19 to 2022-23. It was noticed that a total of 85 bank accounts had been operated by JEs and AEs for executing the departmental works.

The total amount of government funds that had been transferred to these 71 bank accounts for departmentally executed works, whose statements were available on record, was ₹621.79 crore.

"Out of these 85 bank accounts, the transaction statements of 14 bank accounts about 14 JEs and AEs were not made available to audit by the ITDAs," CAG pointed out in its report.

As per Rule 5 of the Orissa General Financial Rules, a government officer receiving government funds is personally responsible for ensuring that they are disbursed in strict conformity with the applicable rules, regulations or orders and that a precise record of all the transactions is maintained, in compliance with the applicable regulations for utilisation of such funds, it says.

"There were instances of irrelevant transactions reflecting suspected misappropriation in bank accounts, such as ATM withdrawals, cheques drawn by self, payments towards Point-of-Sale (POS) transactions at commercial merchants' locations, payment of utility bills (mobile, electricity, water and fuel), payments to e-commerce websites, payments towards investments in mutual funds and stock market, insurance premia, UPI transactions and other payments, which were not relevant to the departmentally executed works," the apex audit agency detected.

The CAG has given instances of personal expenditure made from government funds. As per the report, ₹1.81 lakh had been transferred from the one account operated in the name of one JE of the ITDA, Paralakhemundi, towards payment of insurance premium (Max Life Insurance Company). Similarly, an amount of ₹51,230 had been utilised by one JE of ITDA, Thuamul Rampur, towards fuel cost through POS transactions. One JE of ITDA, Phulbani, had paid ₹36,000 during July to December 2020 from his official account, towards payment of house rent, which was irregular, the CAG pointed out.

The audit agency noted that the practice of routing all payments for departmentally executed works through the bank accounts of JEs and AEs was found to be a major failure of internal control. There was no assurance that the departmental works had actually been executed with the quantity and quality of materials and labour as reported. "The lack of key controls in the execution of works underlined the high and material risk of misappropriation of government funds," it said.

As per the 2011 census, the tribal population in Odisha was 95 lakh, which accounted for 22.85% of the total population of the State and 9.17 % of the country's tribal population. Under the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution of India, an area covering 63,896 square kilometres of Odisha, composed of 119 community development blocks (six districts fully and seven districts partially), has been declared as a scheduled area for taking up comprehensive development of the tribal population.

Engineers in Odisha allegedly spent ₹149 crore of government funds for personal expenses, finds CAG