Patricia Mukhim
It is evident from the daily rants emanating from the Khasi Hills District Council chief, HS Shylla that the Council is no longer happy playing second fiddle to a duly elected State Government, which incidentally includes all citizens of Meghalaya and not just the tribes. It appears to onlookers that the KHADC (and I am only mentioning one Council here because the other two are silent on onlookers too) that the KHADC wants to become a mini Government which will look after the rights and privileges of the Khasi tribals of Meghalaya, who it is repeatedly being asserted, are under threat of becoming a minority in their homeland and finally disappearing from the face of the earth. In fact, it is even suggested that the KHADC would call on the United Nations to intervene in the matter since the Indian Government is found incapable of protecting indigenous people. Perhaps the next and final step would be a demand for a sovereign nation for the Khasi people. The demand now for inserting the word United Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council is a precursor to the sovereignty demand.
From sniping at Khasi women as being incapable of guarding their chastity and therefore not fit to be custodians of society, to the use of caustic vocabulary at dissenting voices, Mr HS Shylla has done it all. He detects a storm brewing on the societal radar but his ideas about making the storm clouds disappear appear bizarre to say the least. As any weatherman will tell us, the ability to predict trouble is not the same as the ability to prevent it. Interestingly, the Khasi society is one that believes in stoic silence in the midst of the storm clouds that threaten to redefine us as a society. Yes we are all silent observers biding our time as if societal debates on these issues thrown up by the KHADC on a daily basis would result in us being ostracised from the society that has embraced us thus far. Aren’t we an interesting people?
In the midst of these looming threats to the Jaidbynriew Khasi from external and extraneous factors, this writer decided to do some fact checking into the internal affairs of the KHADC. In a report given by the Enquiry Committee constituted by the Council on the alleged misappropriation of funds (Dated Oct 20, 2016), there are interesting accounts of how public funds are (mis)utilised. I wonder if this is not a moral threat since the very people tasked with protecting our culture and identity are actually siphoning off even the meagre funds available to the Council. When the Monolith Festival was to be held at Mawphlang, money from the bank account of KHADC were regularly transferred to the personal account of the then Secretary of the Council, W Syiemlieh. When questioned by the Enquiry Committee, Syiemlieh said that he was acting on the verbal instructions of the then Executive Members of the KHADC. The total amount transferred in this manner was Rs 1.52 crore. Syiemlieh in his statement said, “When there is urgent need to release financial aid or loan to any parties it should have been processed through the office but during that time when the Monolith Festival was held the matter was so urgent hence all the financial transactions done for that purpose could not be processed through office procedures. All the amounts that were asked to transfer from the account of the KHADC to my personal account has not been regularized till date.”
Then there is a transaction involving purchase of land at Mawkyrwat in 2015, where the same Secretary to the Executive Committee, directed the Meghalaya Rural Bank to transfer a sum of Rs 12 lakh from the KHADC account to his personal account and the money was paid to one Nolipstar Lyngdoh for purchase of his land at Mawkyrwat. When the Enquiry Committee called for records to ascertain whether there are any receipts for the money paid or land documents, the reply given was that here are no records for such transaction in the KHADC office. The Deputy Secretary to the Executive Committee in charge Finance said, “Even though the letter dated February 4, 2015, registered No DC.XXI/Accts/148/2004-2015/ did appear in the said letter, yet in the office register the sanction of such bill did not reflect in the Accounts Department, hence there is nothing to show that any process has been followed in this regard.” Since there are no records and no land documents or receipts are available in the office there is no proof to show that the amount of Rs 12 lakh has actually been paid to Nolipstar Lyngdoh.
On October 19, 2013, Syiemlieh directed the Bank to once again transfer Rs 50 lakh to his personal account for payment as loan to Anderson Structural Construction. Here too the sanctioning of the loan had not gone through the Accounts Department. The Secretary in his reply to the Enquiry Committee said that the loan sanctioned to Anderson Structural Construction has been refunded and the same has been adjusted with other liabilities in the Office.
Then there is the case of appointment of 11 casual employees. Syiemlieh said he had been instructed to appoint them without any budget being sanctioned. He said the salaries paid to these employees came from his personal account. The Enquiry Committee is flummoxed by the answer of the Secretary and asked how he got the money to pay staff salaries from his own pocket.
The Committee recommended that W Syiemlieh the Secretary be punished under Sections 406/408/409/420 IPC or as the Executive Committee deemed fit. It also recommended that “in order to prevent further misappropriation of fund, each and every fund received by the District Council should be entered and reflected in the Books of Accounts of the Office and each and every financial transaction should be passed by the Executive Committee as per the procedures of the office.”
These are glaring acts of corruption. The KHADC has to answer (1) Who the land purchased out of the Council’s accounts at Mawkyrwat at a sum of Rs 12 lakh belongs to? (2)Did that transaction actually happen? If not where has the Rs 12 lakh gone? (3) How can an amount of Rs 50 lakh be adjusted to other liabilities of the office by violating all procedures of financial propriety?
The terms of reference of the Enquiry Committee was to only look into the allegations of fund misappropriation during the Monolith Festival. If an enquiry is commissioned to go into the books of accounts of the KHADC for the past 20 years then I am sure many skeletons will tumble out of the cupboard. With so many irregularities occurring internally and with no checks and balances in place, it is obvious that respective Executive Committees have been using public funds without any semblance of accountability. And the same Council speaks of addressing the threats to an entire society when it cannot even set its own house in order? Heaven alone knows how much money has been misappropriated till date.
The propensity of the KHADC to appoint or dismiss the syiems (chieftains) who don’t fall in line with the ruling dispensations is legendary. Syiems are dismissed for not sharing the amounts demanded by the Council out of the cess collected by the Syiemship from forest products, markets and other sources. Everything in the Council is about money and power. All the humbug about protecting the Jaidbynriew is a cover up for all the money making strategies.
It is high time that RTI on funds utilisation of the KHADC over a decade at least, are sought for and made public.