Rs 32 lakh swindled in civil works at police HQ

The Lokayukta chief engineer has found misappropriation of funds to the tune Rs 32 lakh in nine of the 18 civil works at the office of State Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG & IGP) on Nrupatunga Road in the City.

The findings were listed in a report on the works that the Lokayukta chief engineer has submitted to the Upa Loka-yukta. Inquiry into the remaining nine works is still on.

The chief engineer’s report held Executive Engineer Venugopal, Assistant Engineer D K Puttaswamy and Assistant Executive Engineer Anand responsible for splitting a single work of constructing parking lots into nine different works to avoid Transparency Act and for releasing the fund before the commencement of the works.

Many of these works were awarded to Puttaswamy’s brother-in-law.

Out of the misappropriation of funds in these nine works, the report has put the liability for Rs 8 lakh on Executive Engineer Venugopal, Rs 12 lakh on Puttaswamy and Rs 12 lakh on Assistant Executive Engineer Anand.

“The inquiry into the other works is still on. The total amount released between March 5 and March 31 was Rs 73 lakh. The inquiry also revealed that 15 works were granted to Puttaswamy’s brother-in-law N H Anil Kumar. It was found that fake estimation, work completed record and ‘MB book’ entries were made to raise the bills to release the funds,” an official said.

The work orders were issued on March 23 and the money was released on March 31, wrongly claiming that the works have been executed. 

It was also found that with an intention to get the amount released from the budgetary allocation made for the year 2014-2015 before March 31, fake tender work was shown and a huge amount has been misappropriated. 

The records also revealed that the amount was released from the office of the DG and IGP as per the letter datedDecember 22, 2014, to Executive Engineer of Building Division. T J Abraham had filed a complaint to the Upa Lokayukta in this