THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Travancore Devaswom Board president K Jayakumar said the audit report on the Global Ayyappa Sangamam submitted to the High Court had flaws.
A task force has been formed to rectify the anomalies, and a final report will be submitted to the court before 26 February.
"The report was submitted in haste as we had to meet the deadline fixed by the court. No affidavit was submitted along with the report. The Board examined the report today and found discrepancies in it. A task force has been formed to rectify them," he told media persons here on Tuesday.
According to the president, the Board is to be blamed for the flaws and not the auditor.
"Normally, during an audit, the auditor would raise certain queries for which the client replies. A few replies would be accepted, and others would not. Unaccepted matters will remain as major objections. Such a procedure did not happen in our case. It is not the auditor's fault but ours. It is our failure that we did not give timely replies to the queries," he said.
Jayakumar said discrepancies occurred in the report due to many reasons.
"In a few cases, physical verification of bills was not done. Entries were not made in the assets register and validated in time. The Board meeting has decided to rectify these mistakes on a war footing. The task force comprising Devaswom Commissioner, Accounts Officer and Chief Engineer will hold discussions with the auditor," he said.
"The report's finding that Rs 8 lakh was paid to Nandagovindam Bhajans and that 4,000 persons took breakfast at the venue was based on wrong documents. The task force will examine these mistakes," he said.
Jayakumar said the Sangamam's expense, as approved by the previous board, was Rs 4.99 crore. The present board stands by this decision, even now.
The bills submitted by the event management agency IIMC and others amount to Rs 7.11 crore. They have been informed that additional payments will not be made.
The Board had made an advance payment of Rs 3 crore for the event, and it was recouped. The Board could not get sufficient sponsorships to meet the entire expense. Rs 2.85 crore was received, and Rs one crore is expected from the Adani Group.
The Board will not utilise its funds for now, and it is taking efforts to get more sponsorships.
