Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 4: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report presented in the State Assembly today revealed that an amount of Rs 4.04 crore was paid for hiring of buses, trucks and light motor vehicles during 2014 Parliamentary and Assembly elections in the State by the Jammu and Kashmir Police that turned out to be registered as scooters, motor cycles, non-commercial including small cars, tractors and bulldozers or were non-existent.
The multi-crore scam in the hiring of vehicles by the police during 2014 Parliamentary and Assembly elections was Exclusively reported by the Excelsior in April 2016 and Police at that time had denied any wrong doings but now the CAG has established the fraud.
The CAG report said: “Further, there was double payment of Rs 1.40 lakh while payment of Rs 1.52 crore was doubtful as there were no details of the vehicles hired and irregular payment of Rs 0.30 crore on hiring of non-commercial vehicles.”
The report said that Government of India provided Rs 115.76 crore between April 2014 and March 2015 for ‘Carriage of Constabulary and Hiring of Vehicles’ in connection with the conduct of Parliamentary Elections (March-May 2014) and State Assembly Elections (October-December 2014) to the Police Department out of which Rs 111.70 crore was spent by 68 Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) of the Police Department for hiring of vehicles and purchase of the Petrol, Oil and Lubricant (POL) between April 2014 and March 2015.
“Scrutiny of the records of nine (Jammu: Four; Kashmir: Five) 23 test-checked DDOs revealed that Police Headquarters (PHQ) issued (March 2014 and October 2014) instructions 24 to the DDOs for hiring vehicles on the basis of rates of the State Road Transport Corporation with 20 per cent discount on the rates after adhering to codal formalities. In disregard of these instructions of PHQ, the DDOs hired vehicles from transport/ travel agencies without following codal provisions and without verification of documents of hired vehicles. Audit noticed glaring irregularities of suspected fraudulent and irregular payments amounting to Rs 5.87 crore while conducting cross verification of the records of these DDOs with that of the records of the 10 (Jammu: Four; Kashmir: Six)25 Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) and the vouchers and payment records available in the Office of the Accountant General (Audit), Jammu and Kashmir”, read the report.
“Nine DDOs of Police department hired 8,983 vehicles from various transport/travel agencies between 11th March 2014 and 20th May 2014 (Parliament Elections 2014) and 31st October 2014 and 29th December 2014 (Assembly Elections 2014). Of these, 625 vehicles involving 755 slots shown to have been hired and deployed and paid for election duties by the DDOs did not match with the type, specification or nature of the vehicles registered with the RTO”, report said.
The report said that hundreds of trucks, medium motor vehicles and light motor vehicles for carrying constabulary were actually registered in the record of the RTOs as scooters and motor cycles, non-commercial/ small four wheeler, cars, tractors and bulldozers or were non-existent. The payments made to transport/travel agencies was Rs 3.99 crore. The fraudulent payment related to both hire charges on fake vehicles and spending shown on POL.
“In addition, eight vehicles 30 recorded to have been hired for the Election duties from six transport/ travel agencies by four DDOs31 were actually registered as Government vehicles with the concerned RTOs and the DDOs had paid Rs 0.05 crore to the six transport/ travel agencies for hire and POL charges”, report read.
“Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) PCR Jammu hired 23 vehicles between 3rd November 2014 and 27th December 2014 for the Assembly Elections and paid (March 2015) an amount of Rs 7.24 lakh to transport/ travel agency against Bill no. 14 of 1st January 2015. Audit scrutiny showed that 20 out of the 23 vehicles were shown to have been hired again between 16th December 2014 and 24th December 2014 vide Bill no. 15 of 1st January 2015 and an amount of Rs 1.40 lakh was paid though payment for deployment of such vehicles was already included in Bill no. 14 dated 1st January 201532 for R7.24 lakh. As such, an amount of Rs 1.40 lakh was paid in excess to the travel agency”, read the report.
“Two SSPs had drawn (between 17th June 2014 and 30th March 2015) an amount of Rs 1.05 crore as hire charges on the basis of list of vehicles prepared by the department itself. One SSP accepted and passed a bill raised by four transport/ travel agencies for Rs 0.47 crore without having the details of the hired vehicles”, the report said.
“Test-check revealed that 86 non-commercial/ private vehicles were hired by five DDOs between March 2014 and December 2014 in contravention of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. An amount of Rs 0.30 crore was paid (between 17th June 2014 to 30th March 2015) on their hiring and POL charges”, read the report.
“26 Scooters such as Chetak, Bajaj, Vespa Mirage, Activa and Motor Cycles such as Passion, Bullet, Hero Honda, etc. 27 Maruti 800, Santro, etc. 28 Mahindra Tractor, Bulldozer, etc. 29,13 vehicles (Taxis: 12; Bus: one), against which a payment of Rs 4.99 lakh was recorded to have been made to transport/ travel agencies”, revealed the report.
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