BWSSB suspends 13 staff after Rs 7-crore water bill scam

The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has suspended 13 employees for alleged embezzlement of Rs 7 crore that citizens had paid towards water bills.

DH had published a report about the BWSSB’s discovery of the scam in its December 17 edition.

The suspended employees include the utility’s revenue manager, assistant executive engineers and executive engineers. In the orders, the BWSSB stated that they are being suspended based on the interim report of an inquiry that proved prima facie their involvement. The board had constituted three special audit committees to verify records from 2017.

“Prima facie, it has been proven that three outsourced staff tampered with the login and passwords of senior officials and not paid the cash collected manually towards water bills,” the orders state.

The suspended staff will now face a departmental inquiry. “The internal inquiry has proved that some of the regular employees who were in responsible posts joined hands with the temporary staff and committed the crime,” a BWSSB source said.

Following a tip-off on suspicious activity by three outsourced employees, who were later arrested by the police, the board officials conducted an internal inquiry that found that the water bill collected in the form of cash, DD and cheque was not deposited to the BWSSB account.

Those suspended are: Bharath Kumar G S, R Srinivas, Vishwanath K, C Somashekar, B Nagendra, C Nagaraju, Sachin Patel, Ramappa Madivalara, Sneha V, Bhimashankar, Geeta M, N Rudresh and S Yogesh.