District Magistrate Uncovers Massive Financial Irregularities in Public Relations Office

District Magistrate Dinesh Kumar Rai conducted a surprise inspection of the District Information and Public Relations Office on Monday. During the inspection, Deputy Development Commissioner Pratibha Rani, Sub-Divisional Officer Dr. Vinod Kumar, OSD Sujit Kumar were also present. During this, the District Magistrate inspected various records including allocation register, cash book, sanction order of the last four years in the Public Relations Office.

During the inspection, District Senior Treasury Officer Santosh Kumar was also summoned to the office. And he was asked to provide rules and verification regarding payment. District Magistrate Dinesh Kumar Rai said that in view of the continuous complaints, the records of the office were inspected on Monday.

He said that prima facie a case of financial irregularities of about one and a half crore has come to light in the office. There is a possibility of more irregularities than this. Therefore, more than half a dozen records and files have been seized. Its investigation is being done. After all the investigation reports are received, a consolidated statement of the level at which financial irregularities have been committed will be prepared and legal action will be taken against the concerned.

DM told that many such cases have come up where huge amount has been paid without the approval order of the competent officer. Not only this, many such cases have also come up where many payments have been kept pending in violation of the orders of the previous District Magistrates.

There have also been cases where vehicles have been operated in the District Public Relations Office but the actual vehicle owner has not been paid yet but the payment has been shown in the file. At the same time, luxury items such as air conditioner, battery, inverter etc. have been purchased from the amount allocated for publicity by the Public Relations Directorate of the state. It has also come to light in the investigation that many such payments have been made which have no justification.

Many suppliers can also get involved in the financial irregularities in the Public Relations Office. It has also come to light in the investigation that the file has been tampered with by overwriting. At the same time, bills of many such suppliers have also come into the records whose business is in some other trade but the bill has been raised for the supply of poster banners.

At the same time, payments of lakhs of rupees have been made to many such suppliers of poster banners without verification by the competent officer. The photograph of the suppliers has also been found to be attached after the date of payment.