Now, a scam in scanning BDA documents

Systems manager allegedly got kickbacks for duplication of work

In what appears to be a fresh scam in the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), the scanning department has submitted bills to the tune of Rs 2.63 lakh for scanning 98,98,427 documents.

This, after the first set of scanned documents were ‘lost’ by the department. BDA officials claim that the scanning department had previously billed close to Rs 30 lakh for the ‘lost’ set of documents.

BDA’s internal auditors are likely to raise serious objections to the bills, which have revealed a novel method of hoodwinking - duplication of work.

Officials in BDA’s finance department termed the amounts ‘exorbitant’. They told Deccan Herald: “It would mean that scanning a single file is costing BDA Rs 37.63.”

They were unwilling to buy the argument that the amount includes the money spent on manpower hired on contract basis.

Sources said the in charge officer of the scanning department, who doubles as the systems manager, has denied any foul play.

“The systems department has said that the objections are invalid as the bills have been approved by Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena,” said a BDA source.

Audit objection

The scanning department employees claim that as much as 0.5 per cent of the money released is being given as kickbacks to the systems manager for billing the said amount.

The scanning department was entrusted with the job to physically scan each file pertaining to site allotment and land auction details undertaken by BDA since its inception, with the help of 12 people hired from a private agency. As many as 98.98 lakh files have been ‘apparently’ scanned by the scanning department.

Auditors, citing that no proof has been submitted for close to one crore files being scanned, have objected to the release of the said amount.

Rumours are rife in the BDA that most of the files were, in fact, re-scanned by the department to bill the said amount. “It is suspected that there has been duplication of work with files being scanned twice or more number of times than required,” said a BDA official.