J&K govt warns officials against diverting funds

Dinesh Manhotra
Tribune News Service
Jammu, September 18

Taking serious note of the reports that heads of various departments are indulging in allegedly diverting funds, meant for welfare schemes, the government has warned officers against unauthorised retention of receipts of bank accounts.

The “higher authorities” have been directed to report irregular diversion of funds and remit the unutilised amount into the treasuries by Thursday evening.

“It has also come into the notice of Finance Department that various departments are making irregular diversion of funds released into their bank accounts”, an order issued by the Financial Commissioner, Finance Department, on Tuesday evening, stated and directed all administrative secretaries that “all sums of money which any state officer receives in his official capacity must immediately be paid in full into the nearest treasury, without any deduction whatever and the amount must immediately be credited by the Treasury Officer to the appropriate head of account. The appropriation of departmental receipts for departmental expenditure is strictly prohibited”.

Sources said officers at the ground level were finding it difficult to implement the welfare schemes at the grassroots levels because the “higher authorities” have allegedly retained funds allotted for these schemes. Furthermore, the sources said the progress of many developmental works had been hampered due to non-release of funds. “Instead of timely releasing the funds, some “higher authorities” have deposited these funds in their own accounts”, a source said.