Oppn wants govt to table GHADC scam report

SHILLONG: The Opposition NPP has asked the State government to table the pending judicial inquiry report on the GHADC scam of 2009-10.
NPP legislator James Sangma said on Sunday that the matter would be raised in the upcoming Assembly session beginning Friday. “I have already put up a question related to the matter that will come up during the question hour,” James said.
He also said the State government should table the report as there was no reason to hold on to it with the excuse that the Finance Department was examining the matter. “There is no sense in withholding the report that has been pending for more than four years,” he said.
The judicial inquiry commission headed by Justice (retd) P.G Agarwal submitted the report to the government after probing the alleged financial irregularities and illegal appointments in GHADC on December 29, 2012.
It was during the tenure of then GHADC CEM P K Sangma, who was with NCP, that the alleged financial irregularities took place in the GHADC in 2009-10.
Later, Sangma joined the Congress and unsuccessfully contested both the 2013 Assembly polls and the GHADC polls held on October 12 last year.
The scam in GHADC surfaced after the then Deputy Commissioner of West Garo Hills, Sanjay Goyal, conducted an audit and found out financial irregularities and illegal appointments in the Council in 2009-10.
Later on October 19, 2010, the State Government notified the inquiry commission headed by Agarwal.
The terms of reference for the commission set by the government included the need to probe the facts and circumstances leading to the financial instability in GHADC and also to examine financial irregularities and misappropriation of funds committed by the Council.