Retired accountant to sort out BMC’s mess

Wondering what to do about the mess in the civic body’s accounts, municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar has gone racing to a retired civic accountant for help.

Wondering what to do about the mess in the civic body’s accounts, municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar has gone racing to a retired civic accountant for help.

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Vishnu Kadam, former chief accountant of the BMC, who had worked with Kumar when he was additional municipal commissioner 10 years ago, will have to prepare a balance sheet of the last three years.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had recently ordered the corporation to submit its balance sheet for the last three financial years, 2007-8, 2008-9 and 2009-10. During the winter session of the assembly in December, Chavan said the government would investigate allegations of corruption and misappropriation of funds in the BMC.

Now, Kadam will have to help tally the balance sheets of the last three years. He has already got down to the job, compiling data over the past two days. At the general body meeting last week, the civic chief had said, “We will submit 2007-8 balance sheets till January-end, while the balance sheet for the year 2008-9 will be submitted before March 31. For 2009-10, May-end would be the deadline. BMC will update the current year’s balance sheet till July end,” Kumar said.

Kumar clarified that the delay was not deliberate, and the reason was the new accounting system, which had been made mandatory for all corporations.

Many officials his junior, were surprised to see him at the civic headquarters. “He is going through old financial records and files of 2007-8 contracts. He will help prepare a balance sheet as he was in Kumar’s good books,” said a senior civic official on condition of anonymity.