THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has referred a corruption case to the police vigilance for further probe. The vigilance wing of the board had identified corruption in certain construction works undertaken on various premises of the board.
The report said corruption occurred at different offices, temples and other premises under Mavelikkara and Kottayam divisions of the board. Six officers, including a chief engineer, have been named in the report. They are accused of undertaking works in the name of their benamis and siphoning off money. Bills were honoured for works which were never coarried out, says the report.The investigation covered 207 construction works executed in 2018-19 fiscal.
They pertained to construction works and equipment purchase. Several works were executed under the emergency provision, without inviting tenders. The benamis have not signed some bills which were honoured. Excess payment was made for certain works. One of them was a construction work for which Rs 1.6 crore was paid to the contractor. But the TDB vigilance wing reported that the work executed was worth Rs 1 crore only. The wing’s report recommended to the board to facilitate a thorough investigation. The board has now referred the report to the vigilance wing of the police.