
KOCHI: Citing repeated instances of improper accounting of receipts and expenditures by temple staff, the Kerala State Audit Department has flagged serious audit failures in the Guruvayur Devaswom accounts. An affidavit submitted in the High Court by the department reveals a shortfall of nearly Rs 27 lakh deposited in the banks over three years from the sale of gold lockets and chains. Besides, the devaswom incurred a loss of Rs 89,55,595 in connection with installing CCTV cameras in the temple.
Rajeev R, Senior Deputy Director of the Kerala State Audit Department, Guruvayur Devaswom Audit, filed the affidavit in response to a petition filed by Dr P S Mahendra Kumar of Neyyattinkara seeking a directive to the devaswom to produce the list of deposits of funds of Guruvayoor Devaswom in the cooperative societies in light of the bank scams that occurred in Thrissur district.
The affidavit stated that sales proceeds generated from the sale of gold and silver lockets, received in cash and through card swiping are deposited in two accounts of Punjab National Bank. Collection staff from the bank come to the temple daily and issue separate credit slips for the cash collected. However, the amounts remitted in the bank account by the collection staff during the period 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22 were not the same as that of the figures shown in the credit slip. A shortage of Rs 16,16000, Rs 8,67,500, and Rs 2,62,900 was found in that period, it stated.
The temple superintendent, temple manager, and deputy administrator have failed to verify whether the amount collected each day was properly remitted to the bank by the collection staff.
‘Physical verification of valuable items not conducted periodically’
Since the bank statements were not furnished to the audit team on time, this defalcation could not be pointed out in the concurrent receipts of the temple. In 2020, directions were given to the devaswom authorities to furnish copies of bank statements to the audit weekly, but they failed to implement it, the affidavit said.
The audit department also requested the court to direct the devaswom to fix the norms for the construction works which are done through various sponsors. It pointed out that the construction work done through sponsorship does not fall under the purview of the audit. Hence, it is not known whether the construction is as per the PWD norms or not.
The devaswom’s annual accounts are still prepared customarily. Despite repeated audit observations, the devaswom prepares only the receipt and payment accounts. “However, the furnished annual accounts statements for audit do not include the required value of assets like gold, silver, and land. The physical verification of valuable items is not conducted periodically,” the affidavit said.
It also stated that devaswom has fixed deposits of `1,975.90 crore in various nationalised banks, scheduled banks, and co-operative urban banks as of October 5, 2023. With regard to the allegation of fraud in the installation of CCTV cameras, the affidavit replied that an amount of Rs 5,08,13,491 was spent for the installation of CCTV.
The work was entrusted to Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society Ltd. On verification, it was noticed that there were many defects in the executed work, but it was not properly rectified by the contractor. As a result of this laxity on the part of Uralungal, devaswom had to expend an additional amount of Rs 4,05, 496 for the replacement of the unusable and damaged battery of the UPS in the server room.
Many CCTV cameras and hard disks are not working properly. Though devaswom pointed out the defects many times, the contractor failed to rectify them.