Idukki: An inspection by vigilance sleuths in the Horticorp Procurement and Sales Unit in Munnar has unearthed corruption including fudging of vouchers meant for travel expenses.
The woman staffer who holds the position of assistant director cum district manager was found to have siphoned off Rs 59,500 by submitting forged travel expense bills for the car which has been scrapped.
Vigilance officers from Thodupuzha who inspected the Horticorp unit on Friday said that the driver Murugan of this car had died due to Covid in 2021, however, till 2022, the vouchers in his name and the car were submitted to get the bills reimbursed.
Another interesting finding that has unveiled widespread corruption is that instead of the expense for travel being paid to the account of the driver, the payment has gone directly to the account of the staffer.
Vigilance officers led by inspector Tipson Thomas conducted a flash raid based on a tip-off that there was rampant corruption prevailing in the unit meant to aid vegetable farmers in the Munnar – Kanthalloor region by procuring vegetables from them by giving their produce a fair price.
Officials who took part in the raid said that it also came to their notice that even the registration number of a motorbike was given in the voucher meant for expenses towards a car journey. “It can’t be seen as a clerical mistake as the drivers who submit such bills would not give the wrong registration number of their vehicles. Such findings point to the fudging of documents to withdraw money from the Horticorp,” they added.
The fresh instances of corruption have come out in the open at the Munnar unit at a time when another report against the officials here was submitted allegedly for not giving proper value to the produce of the farmers. “We had earlier found that citing that the quality of the vegetables was poor, the officials at the unit had given very low prices for the farmers.
In this matter, we had found fault with the officials at the unit and that report was submitted to the vigilance director. On such reports, the director can either give us orders to register cases or the issue will be brought to the notice of the department heads concerned. Action on this report is awaited,” vigilance officials said.
The Vigilance collected enough documents and it will be further scrutinized to get a clear picture of the corrupt practices at the unit, they added.