Rs 34 crore irregularities in Lottery Dept, reveals CAG
SHILLONG: The State Government incurred an additional expenditure of Rs 5.69 crore for paying salary and allowances to the idle staff of the Director of State Lotteries (DSL), revealed the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for the financial year 2015-16.
The report, which was tabled in the Assembly on Friday, showed DSL had 27 employees on its payroll even after the Government discontinued the lottery schemes.
The Government introduced the lottery schemes through DSL between September 2001 and October 2004 but stopped them in August 2008. However, the CAG report found the 27 employees were paid salary and allowances for eight years till 2016 despite the DSL not organising any lottery scheme and non-realisation of revenue.
An audit query on the duties of the staff during the period from 2011-12 to 2015-16 elicited no response from the Government.
The CAG report further pointed out that despite having non-performing staff, the Government did not utilise the manpower to fill the 112 vacancies in the Excise, Registration, Taxation and Stamps Department. DSL is under the department.
“Failure of the Department to effectively manage the manpower thus resulted in unfruitful expenditure of Rs 5.69 crore towards payment of salary to idle staff,” the CAG report noted.
The CAG also found irregularities to the tune of Rs 34.42 crore in the Lottery Department against non-realisation of revenue in 2015-16. There was, however, no intimation of recovery by the Government.
The lottery schemes in Meghalaya were regulated under the Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1988, and the Meghalaya State Lottery Rules, 2002.
