Opposition councillors walked out of a Kochi Corporation Council meeting in protest on the grounds that Mayor Soumini Jain was not able to provide a satisfactory reply to the issues raised in the 2018-19 financial year’s audit report.
The Mayor has asked the Corporation Secretary and the officials concerned to look into the issues raised by the report and ratify them.
After the Opposition objected to the hurried discussion of audit reports for the past four financial years and utilisation of the 2014-15 Mayor’s development fund at a single council meeting, only the recently released audit report for 2018-19 was discussed at the special meeting held at the Ernakulam Town Hall in keeping with the COVID-19 protocol on Wednesday.
The Opposition LDF pointed to the issues with tax collection that the recent audit report submitted by the Local Fund Audit Department had raised, including reusing of cancelled receipts for tax collection. With regard to expenditure, auditors had blocked the spending of ₹24.85 crore in the absence of vouchers and sufficient explanations for spending, said V.P. Chandran, LDF parliamentary party secretary. The opposition raised objections about the sale of the Mayor’s official car to a private individual and said the Mayor could not provide sufficient explanation for it.
Ms. Jain countered that there had not been any violation of norms in the auctioning of the car and the purchase of a new one. It was authorised by the finance standing committee and the council, and the Secretary will now look into the allegations, she said.
According to the Kerala Municipality (Manner of Inspection and Audit System) Rules, 1997, the audit report is to be discussed at a special council meeting convened for the purpose within a month of receiving the report, the Opposition pointed out. “But after this corporation council came to power, audit reports have not been discussed at all. The problems raised have not been remedied and officials responsible for inconsistencies have not been held accountable,” Mr. Chandran said. They also said that the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor were placing the blame squarely on officials rather than claiming responsibility for it themselves.
Speaking to The Hindu, Deputy Mayor K.R. Premakumar said, “The audit report is not the final word. It needs to be ratified. In several years, the audit report has been discussed in the council only once. Not discussing the audit report is not specific to this council.”