Thiruvananthapuram: The government has let off all officials, against whom a departmental inquiry was initiated in connection with the money swindling from state treasury, with a ‘censure’, which is the mildest penalty.
The officials include treasury director AM Jafar, chief coordinator for treasury savings bank (TSB) applications Reghunathan Unnithan, state coordinator of TSB applications Mohan Prakash K, district coordinator of TSB applications Mani SS and system administrator at additional sub-treasury Vanchiyoor Rajmohan SJ.
The government had appointed a fact-finding team to probe the fraudulent withdrawal of government money at additional sub-treasury at Vanchiyoor in the capital. The team had submitted its report that there were supervisory lapses on the part of the treasury director and the subordinate staff. It was also reported that the director had failed to report the matter to the government and the police on time.
The findings had said that the director failed to coordinate and supervise the work of district treasury officers, sub-treasury officers and master trainees of TSB applications at regular intervals, and also failed to notice the error in TSB application and integrated financial management system, ultimately leading to the fraudulent transaction.
However, the director defended that he had initiated immediate corrective measures when such a matter came to light and that there was no deliberate delay in reporting the matter to the government and the police. He also argued his case explaining the practice of monthly conferences of subordinate official, and emphasized on software issues.
But, government reached a conclusion that ‘supervisory lapses occurred on the part of AM Jafar, in coordinating the work of the department which ultimately paved way to a huge loss to the state exchequer’. In the case of other officials, government made similar observations. However, government decided to take a ‘lenient view’ and decided to impose only a minor penalty.
“Censuring may seem like a trivial action, but, it will be marked in his service book. It will even affect employee promotion prospects,” said a senior official on condition of anonymity.
Nearly Rs 2 crore was swindled from Thiruvananthapuram district collector’s account that was being operated at sub-treasury in Vanchiyoor. The money was diverted by a senior treasury accountant M R Bijulal using the username and password of another official who retired from service on May 31 last year.
A police case was initiated along with the departmental inquiry. Though a vigilance inquiry was also mooted, finance department strongly raised its objections then.