Officer in Telangana ‘misappropriates’ Rs 20 crore from GWMC

WARANGAL: Whispers are doing rounds of the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) corridors these days of a senior officer allegedly misappropriating Rs 20 crore of the civic body funds before being repatriated to her parent department recently. According to GWMC sources, the officer behind the alleged misappropriation of funds was the Chief Horticulture Officer (CHO) and the fraud came to light only after she was repatriated following four years and 11 months on deputation.

Soon after her repatriation, the GWMC authorities noticed that the funds allocated for improving greenery in the tri-cities were “used up”. An internal investigation threw up some surprises — a certain nursery maintenance account, watering plants in the months of August and September and more.

“She took advantage of the fact that 10 per cent of the GWMC budget — Rs 200 crore per year — was allocated to increase the green cover within the tri-cities limits. She made sure that she withdrew all the allocated funds against fake invoices,” a GWMC official said.

According to the GWMC authorities, the civic body has only 17 nurseries and one for each of the 66 divisions. However, the CHO not only withdrew funds for maintaining 66 nurseries, as many as 150 workers were “paid” monthly remuneration rather promptly.

GWMC Additional Commissioner Anis-ur-Rasheed said that the GWMC Commissioner has written to the Agricultural department principal secretary to take action against the repatriated officer. The Principal Secretary on his part asked the GWMC Commissioner to constitute a committee for a thorough inquiry, said Rasheed.However, the officer in the eye of the storm told Express: “How could I misappropriate any funds when I did not have the right to withdraw any funds allocated for the development of greenery in the limits of the tri-cities? ”