Ex-accounts officer detects fraud; JE in the dock

The District administration has recommended departmental action against a junior engineer of the Sirhind-Fatehgarh Sahib Municipal Council after an inquiry established that he had embezzled Rs 2 lakh.

The fraud was detected by retired accounts officer NK Sayal, a resident of Sirhind town in the district, after he obtained information about Municipal Council works under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Sayal had sought information from the council under the Act on October 1, 2007, about the works conducted by the MC departmentally from April 2006 to March 2007.

He said the council was reluctant to provide the desired information and supplied only part of it on October 31, 2008.

As a result, a fine of Rs 5,000 was imposed on the council by the State Information Commission on October 31, 2008.

The commission had also directed to pay Rs 500 per hearing till information was supplied.

Sayal said complete information had still not been provided by the council.

Becoming suspicious on getting information about a particular project, he had complained to the Punjab Governor, Local Bodies Minister, Chief Secretary and senior officials of the district administration and Local Government Department, alleging a fraud of Rs 2 lakh in the work of earth filling on the Jharhi Sahib road, near Bahadurgarh village in the district.

On the basis of Sayal’s complaint, the Fatehgarh Sahib Deputy Commissioner marked an inquiry to the ADC (Development). After receiving the ADC’s report, the DC recently submitted it to the Director, Local Government, in which he has recommended departmental action against Harmail Singh Jandu, who was posted as junior engineer, Sirhind-Fatehgarh Sahib MC.

The ADC’s inquiry confirmed that a fraud of Rs 2 lakh had been committed by the JE.

In his report to the Deputy Commissioner, the ADC also recommended the recovery of Rs 2 lakh from the JE.

Giving details of the fraud, Sayal said following the directions of the then Fatehgarh Sahib Deputy Commissioner, the Municipal Council had prepared an estimate on August 31,2006, for laying earth on the road at an estimated cost of Rs 2 lakh.

He said though no work was done, the JE had claimed to have executed the work departmentally and payment of Rs 1,97,880 was made in September 2007.

As per the ADC’s report, no earth work for the estimate of Rs 2 lakh had been done at the site. The ADC also found that another estimate of Rs 5 lakh was again prepared for the same work and tenders were called on February 29, 2008, by the council, following which part of the work was executed.