Kerala - Kochi   

Corporation criticised on punching machine case

KOCHI: The Ombudsman for Local Self-government Institutions M.R. Hariharan Nair criticised the Kochi Corporation while disposing of a case regarding the purchase of a punching machine to record the movement of Corporation staff and its subsequent disappearance.

The case was based on a petition filed by the general secretary of the Human Rights Defence Forum, regarding the purchase of the punching machine during the 2000-01 period to register the movement of Corporation staff and its subsequent disappearance from the Corporation office premises.

He lamented “the deplorable condition” prevailing in the office of the Kochi Corporation with regard to the purchase of a costly item like the punching machine without accounting it in the stock register.

There was the subsequent failure to take timely action to report its disappearance or theft as the case may be to the police. The Ombudsman directed that a copy of the order should be sent to the office of the Principal Secretary, the Local Self-government Department, to take appropriate action to avoid recurrence of such irregularities in the future and to recover the loss through appropriate departmental action.

Mr. Nair said that the statement filed by the corporation secretary, the defendant in the case, made it clear that the machine was purchased without taking recourse to the prescribed procedures. The statement further admitted that the Council never granted permission for the purchase of such a machine nor was it entered in the stock register. “As such, what remains to be considered is only the further action to be taken in the matter,” observed the Ombudsman.

He said that the inquiry conducted by the Local Fund Accounts Committee of the 11th Kerala Legislature had found that the then secretary of the Corporation had acted in an arbitrary manner to purchase the machine, costing Rs. 2.15 lakh, in flagrant violation of all prescribed procedures.

Mr. Nair observed that the Corporation had sent a detailed report on the matter to the Secretary to Government, LSG Department on April 19, 2002.

“All that remains to be done therefore is the recovery of the amount from the official, for which action is required on the part of the government,” he observed.

The Ombudsman said that since it appeared that the State government was seized of the matter he was closing the case.

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