THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After having directed the Finance Department to stop clearing of bills produced by the PSC, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Friday ordered a probe into the diverting of funds by the commission from the Head of the Office Expenses (OE) to meet other expenses. The treasury director was asked to stop clearing the Bills being presented by PSC in view of the fact that it had drained almost an amount of Rs 126 crore sanctioned for the entire year as Plan fund.
Though the recommendation by the Finance Department was to order a vigilance probe, the Chief Minister has shown leniency by limiting the probe by the Finance Inspection Wing.
According to sources, the Chief Minister is not happy with the commission chairman K S Radhakrishnan though he was handpicked by Oommen Chandy himself. Commission chairman had taken certain decisions against the Chief Minister’s wishes in the recent past. But being a constitutional body, Oommen Chandy could not have taken the reign from the chairman.
Financial Crisis
It has been pointed out that diverting the fund from “Other Expense” head to advance the amount required for setting up the online examination centre in Kozhikode has pushed the commission into the current crisis. Setting up of an online examination centre required over Rs 4 crore. Commission had advanced Rs 2 crore through five cheques to KEL, a PSU, which was entrusted with the setting up of the Centre. Treasury officials refused to clear the bill as it had been forbidden from clearing bills above Rs 50 lakh. But commission presented five cheques worth Rs 49 lakh each and one cheque worth Rs 5 lakh. The treasury people told the commission that it could clear only one Bill worth Rs 49 lakh and clearance of bill above Rs 50 lakh required prior government sanction.
The crisis will lead to the non payment of the expenses already incurred in connection with the conduct of the exams.
When contacted PSC Secretary Saju Geogre, told ‘Express’ that government could not stop conducting the exams and interviews.
“In fact, there has no misappropriation of funds. But there has been spending of money from the office expense for capital expenditure. But we hope that commission could clear the doubts of the government,” he said. Referring to the financial crisis, he added commission had incurred dues worth Rs 6.75 crore to be paid by the end of the last fiscal. Also, setting up of the online examination centre incurred a cost of Rs 12 crore against the sanctioned amount of Rs 7.5 crore. There was a huge spurt in the number of examinations conducted in 2013-14 from an average of 200 a year to nearly 400, he points out.
fund diversion led to crisis
It has been pointed out that diverting the fund from “Other Expense” head to set up the online examination centre in Kozhikode has pushed the commission into the current crisis. Setting up of an online examination centre required over Rs 4 crore.