Unimaginable though but a fact related to how absence of any fear of the law or any immediate accountability in the system can prompt persons in Government service to embezzle lakhs of Rupees in the name of raising two Working Standard Laboratories without constructing the same as back in 2009-10, has surfaced only recently. Apart from any other things related to the entire matter, some people entering Government service with such a criminal mindset, where both the laboratories beyond appearing on papers, are nowhere to be ”found” even by employing all techniques available. Even the proverbial needle could be found in a haystack but not these two laboratories at the Legal Metrology Complex in Transport Yard, Jammu as believed and as per documents and claimed by the ones who pocketed the money. Lakhs of Rupees having been released and very surprisingly, even the mandatory Utilization Certificates (UC) too submitted by the cheats in charge of these two laboratories, again raise questions as to whether any authority physically inspected the projects for which public money was spent and even Utilization Certificates submitted, were in fact erected or not and also according to plans and designs. The fact of the matter is that under centrally sponsored scheme, six Working Standard Laboratories were to be constructed in Jammu and Kashmir, three each in Jammu and Srinagar at the cost of Rs.25 lakh per laboratory in 2009-10. The amount was released by the Central Government and additional funds for full completion of these laboratories was provided by the then State Government. How could the other three in Srinagar come up in full, reports that only two were functioning there also, perhaps, corroborates “full understanding” between those in charge of the assignment at both the capital cities. It was perhaps duly planned that instead of six, only four were to be constructed – two each in Jammu Transport Nagar and in Bemina Srinagar -but the cost of other four not constructed eaten away straightaway. While post mortem of “how, when and where” in respect of the big fraud would be now a time consuming and a long exercise and the recommendation of the Controller Legal Metrology Department for a CBI probe or investigations by the Anti -Corruption Bureau notwithstanding, there are certain pertinent questions which need answers. Firstly, why was the fraud unearthed so late? Secondly, when the State Government kept on releasing its share of additional funds over and above the Central Government’s Grant-in-Aid, did no one from the Finance or General Administration Departments conduct any physical verification and inspection to see what for the funds were released? Thirdly, is there no post disbursement scrutiny at the Finance Department to verify whether public funds were genuinely released and for the specific project only? Fourthly, what about the Central Government as beyond receiving the Utilization Certificate, no verification or inspection is believed to have been arranged to be conducted and both these lacunae in the system were fully exploited by the perpetrators of the fraud. Last but not the least, what role was played in the entire scandal by the then Deputy Controllers and Joint Controllers of the LMD – Jammu and Kashmir and if it is construed that their explicit or implicit backing was there to commit such a brazen fraud, it would not be any exaggeration. Doubtful integrity of otherwise considered responsible officers should never be tolerated. In the instant case, such a big fraud and that too looting money just by doing some paper work, reveals how loose and in disarray the administrative system is and how much of utmost importance was frequent, intensive and professional auditing and according utmost importance to audit findings. Again, we reiterate our stand that the cost of such audits, even if outsourced, would be negligible, even of no significance, to the size of frauds and the public money involved, in its absence. Can we expect prompt, result oriented and fast enquiry in the fraud under reference and in the meantime, the suspects arrested as we shall be closely monitoring the developments in the case?