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A release from BIMS Finance Advisor L S Tamadaddi said the director alone cannot sign cheques for releasing the bills and the bills have been paid to the contractor after the inferences made during the third party inspection were complied with, and the cheques were jointly signed by Director and Deputy Commissioner.
Tamadaddi said, bills for college building, hostels (boys and girls), staff quarters and nurse quarters were verified by the Public Works Department (PWD) and the bills were released after getting approval from the Deputy Commissioner, who is also the chairman for BIMS Building Committee.
The joint account is in the name of Director and the Deputy Commissioner and cheques are jointly signed by both of them, he stated.
The Finance Advisor does have powers to sign cheques and there is no scope for misuse of funds, he asserted.
After third party report stated that building works were sub-standard, the report was sent to the Deputy Commissioner, Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare Department and Principal Secretary PWD for appropriate action, he said.
Bills of Hyderabad-based contractor Lanco Infratech Limited worth Rs 50 lakh have been put on hold as per the directions of Commercial Taxes Department (Intelligence) and rest of the bills have been cleared, Tamadaddi said in a written clarification.
Deputy Commissioner and Chairman for BIMS Building Committee in a letter to Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare Department written on April 9, 2009 referring to third party inspection report has asked to initiate necessary action in the matter.
Sources in BIMS admitted that construction of buildings has been running behind schedule and delay in payment of bills has been one of the prominent reasons for the same.