Audit finds financial irregularities in Chandigarh SPIC’s functioning in past 3 yrs

The local audit department wasn’t given bank statements, expenditure voucher, rent agreements and ledgers of the past three years; violation of rules by the officials found as well

hillary.victor@htlive.com

HT File

The local audit department in their special audit has detected several financial irregularities in the functioning of the Society for Promotion of Information and Technology (SPIC) in Chandigarh from April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2018.

The SPIC has been set up under the aegis of the department of Information Technology, Chandigarh, for implementing plans of the administration to promote the IT industry in city.

The audit, called for by the adviser, was conducted by the UT administration after Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India found several irregularities in the functioning of the IT department and SPIC.

RK Garg, RTI activist, said, “It seems SPIC is a hub of financial irregularities, where no rule is applicable. I request the concerned authorities to merge SPIC with the IT department.”

Arjun Sharma, director, IT, said, “I will look into to the issue and have asked the department to submit a report on financial bungling.”

₹50 lakh loss on rent, vacant building

The report states, “SPIC let out surplus spaces to the companies on rent, but it was found that rent of companies was enhanced, but revised security on account of enhanced rent has not been taken from them and even no efforts were made to recover the same from the tenants, resulting in the loss of ₹3.15 lakh. SPIC has suffered ₹47 lakh loss due to not letting out of seven bays in the financial year 2017-18.”

The audit found that though the SPIC maintains its account of computer software, but in spite of several requests by the audit team, the record of the past three years was not produced. The record includes bank statements, expenditure voucher, rent agreements and ledgers.

Failed to maintain cash book

A serious irregularity was found in the maintenance of cash book as opening and closing balance for 2017-18 were not provided. An amount of ₹16 lakh was spent in 2017-18, but not shown in the cash book. Out of ₹16 lakh, SPIC paid around ₹15 lakh penalty as Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) and ₹1.4 lakh to a five-star hotel in Industrial Area.

SPIC centre head claimed allowances

The report raised objections on the allowances of SPIC head Anil Prashar, who is using the official vehicle and at the same time drawing ₹7,400 as conveyance amount per month. According to the norm, no conveyance allowance is permissible to an employee who is being provided with the official vehicle.

Strap ‘Financial bunglings’ The local audit department wasn’t given bank statements, expenditure voucher, rent agreements and ledgers of past 3 years; violation of rules found too