No audit of Loka Kerala Sabha meets in Dubai, London, New York, says govt

Thiruvananthapuram: Even as the fund-raisers for the recent US zonal meet of the Loka Kerala Sabha received bad press, the State Government has revealed that the income and expenditure of the three regional meetings of the diaspora body have not been audited so far.

The Kerala Government also informed that it was unaware of the amount of money collected through sponsorships and the expenditure incurred on these events.

This information was given by the government in reply to a request made under the Right to Information Act.

All the three meetings, including the latest in New York, were conducted through sponsorships. The government said that neither the Secretariat of the Loka Kerala Sabha nor NoRKA-Roots had any details about the accounts.

The fund-raiser for the New York event was widely panned in Kerala as prospective sponsors were promised a chance to share the dais with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and have dinner with him.

RTI reply belies Govt's old claim
The government had earlier claimed that the events associated with the Loka Kerala Sabha are audited and that the accounts of the function in New York too would be scrutinised.

But the RTI reply suggests the first two regional meetings held in other parts of the globe were not audited and that the accounts of the last event too won't come under scrutiny.

Why accounts are unaudited?
The question of audit arises if the government raises or handles the funds, claim sources linked to the global body of the Malayali diaspora.

The secretariat of the Loka Kerala Sabha says that the organising committee consisting of its members and expatriates had raised funds for the first regional meet in Dubai in 2019 through sponsorships.

It also says that the same practice was followed in the case of the London meeting in 2022 and the event that took place in New York last month.

What else the RTI reply states
There are accounts only for Rs 18.40 lakh that was spent on the air travel, accommodation, food, and visa for the government delegation that attended the first regional summit. No money was spent from the Loka Kerala Sabha’s funds for the government delegates.

However, the RTI reply does not specify whether money was spent by any other department.

The government had ordered that the expenditure incurred on the director of the Loka Kerala Sabha attending the New York meeting should be met by the organisation. But since the government did not sanction any funds this year, no money was given for the last meeting, the reply says.

However, it does not state how much was the expenditure for the event.

The Loka Kerala Sabha, whose director is an IAS officer, is an organisation formed at the initiative of the government. All the three regional meetings of the Sabha were official programmes in which the Chief Minister, Speaker, Ministers, and Secretaries to different departments took part.

Organisers claim loss
According to information available from the organising committee, the expense for the New York meeting was $6.5 lakh (approximately Rs 5.34 crore). A diamond sponsor met the expenditure of $2.5 lakh that was incurred on the Times Square meeting of the Chief Minister. Later, $1 lakh more was obtained from him.

But the organisers claim that the targeted amount could not be collected through sponsorships and that the event had run up a loss. They said that there are some outstanding debts due to be paid.

After funds are raised to repay the debts, they would inform the government of their decision to appoint an auditor to scrutinise the accounts.