SHILLONG:
Amidst reports of non- submission of accounts by the three autonomous district councils to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) has decided to streamline all the accounts of the council.
“We are taking steps by appointing a chartered accountant (CA), who along with his team will conduct an inquiry of all the accounts so that we can streamline the same,” KHADC chief Titosstarwell Chyne said.
Informing that there will be an audit report of all accounts once every three months, Chyne admitted that proper implementation of the financial rules has been missing in the council. “You have seen in the CAG report, the departments do not maintain even their cash books,” said the KHADC chief.
He also said that a decision how to recover the misappropriated amount from plantation chowkidar, Franklin Khymdeit, who had misappropriated over Rs 34 lakh royalty share collected by the council’s forest department, was also taken as per the recommendation of the inquiry committee.
“The recommendation of the inquiry committee was also approved by the executive committee and accordingly the same was implemented. He (Khymdeit) had confessed before the inquiry committee that he had misappropriated the money and urged them to allow him to repay the whole amount,” said Chyne, adding that the action was purely based on humanitarian ground.
The KHADC chief also said that the council feels if a person had admitted that he had misused the fund and wants to repay, that has to be taken into consideration as it is like a punishment for the faulter.
“He has committed the crime and at the same time he wants to repay the amount misused. He will no longer get his GPF and other entitlements. If we get him arrested then what will happen to his children, we have to take all this into consideration based on humanitarian grounds. If he goes to jail, who will take care of his family?” he said, adding that the council will recover the misappropriated funds by deducting Rs 10,000 every month from Khymdeit’s salary.
Moreover, Chyne said that the inquiry committee in its recommendation had mentioned clearly that there is a provision which allows the council to recover the misappropriated funds through such action. “Therefore, we have accordingly decided to implement the recommendation,” he said.
Brushing off reports that alleged that the chief financial officer (CFO) had to pay Rs 1 lakh monthly to refund the misappropriated amount, Chyne, said that was a one-time settlement and it was just a token of fixing responsibility since he was the head of the department. “In fact, the inquiry committee found that the CFO was not at all involved in the misappropriation of funds,” he said.
Earlier on March 27, 2017, along with Saiborne, three others including the under-secretary B Lyngdoh, DCFO M Lyngdoh and a plantation chowkidar Franklin Khymdeit were also put under suspension by the KHADC.
Before this, Khymdeit was first suspended on November 2, 2016, when the CFO brought to the notice of the Council the detection of the misappropriation of the 50 per cent share which was supposed to be deposited in the KHADC’s bank account at Meghalaya Rural Bank.
However, as per findings of the inquiry report submitted by Laitthma, the suspension against the three officials of the forest department was lifted.
It may be mentioned here that the first inquiry report was submitted by the Joint Secretary to the EC of the KHADC DG Syiemiong which has in it the three “written confession letters” of the plantation chowkidar Franklin Khymdeit on the misappropriation of the Council funds.