TURA: In what can be termed as the tip of the iceberg on possible widespread misappropriation of government funds by some corrupt secretaries of village employment councils (VEC), a police FIR has been lodged against one such secretary, who was caught withdrawing wages money under multiple names of job card holders who had long passed away.
What made the exposure all the more shocking was finding the names of almost four dozen government employees, including a school teacher, as job card holders under the VEC.
Block Development Officer of Demdema C&RD Block under Phulbari region, PR Sangma, on Wednesday, filed the FIR against the secretary of Askikandi VEC, Mozidur Rahman, after holding a public hearing on several complaints raised against the accused.
A resident of Askikandi, Nazmul Hashan, was the first to blow the lid on the widespread misappropriation of government funds by the VEC secretary.
Based on his complaints, an enquiry was conducted by the Demdema BDO where it was found that as many as 43 government service holders working in different departments were having job cards under Askikandi VEC, a clear violation.
Among those who got themselves enrolled as job card holders also included a Gram Sevak from the block.
Even the dead were not spared by the unscrupulous VEC secretary who was found drawing wages on behalf of as many as 17 job card holders who had long passed away.
The probe also found that there were a number of persons who held dual and multiple job cards under their names.
This included a school head teacher, Sahanur Islam, who was identified having three job cards in his name.
Under MGNREGA, each job card holder is entitled to 100 days of work in a year.
The daily wage for a job card holder last year was Rs 187 (18,700 for 100 days) which was raised this year to Rs 203 per day.
In the police FIR, the BDO accused the VEC secretary of violating the MGNREGA guidelines and fraudulently withdrawing the wages money against job card holders’ names of deceased, dual, multiple and government servants.
The VEC secretary willfully did not inform the block officer about the names of deceased and government employees and intentionally went about preparing the muster roll and illegally withdrawing government funds.
There have long been widespread corruption allegations in VECs, with many accusations against secretaries, mostly in the minority dominated plain belt region of Garo Hills.