SHILLONG, Aug 22: Trinamool Congress national spokesperson Saket Gokhale on Monday asked Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong to clarify as to why the Shillong Smart City Ltd (SSCL) did not conduct the annual general meeting (AGM) for three years – 2019, 2020 and 2021.
“And if it did, you really need to clarify and give a proper justification as to why financials for these 3 years have not been filed by the company,” he said in a letter to Tynsong.
Reminding the Deputy CM that under the Companies Act, 2013, a company is required to file its financial reports within 30 days from the conclusion of the AGM, the TMC leader said according to the requirements under the law, the AGM of the SSCL for 2019, 2020 and 2021 should have been completed by March or September of those years.
“In the annual general meeting, the company’s board is required to take the audited financial statements on record. Therefore, there is absolutely zero excuse for SSCL to not have filed its financials for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021. If your claim is that the audit for these 3 years as well as for 2022 happened only this year, that’s a gross violation of the law,” Gokhale wrote in the letter.
He also said that it was astonishing that Tynsong used this justification for explaining why the SSCL did not file its financial reports for three years despite already having awarded contracts worth crores and received funds of crores from the Centre and the state government.
The SSCL in a rejoinder said the financial statements for 2019-20 and 2020-2021 have been audited by the statutory auditors as well as CAG and no adverse observations are made by these agencies.
“Once the financial statements for financial years 2019-20 and 2020-21 are approved and adopted by the members in the AGM, it shall be filed with the Registrar of Companies,” the SSCL said.
Last week, Gokhale had alleged the SSCL had not filed a single financial result or annual report with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs as is required under law even though it has been granted funds of over Rs 1,005 crore for various schemes under the ambitious project.
In a representation to Vijay Kumar, nominee director on the Board of Directors of the SSCL, Gokhale alleged since its incorporation, the SSCL has not filed a single financial result or annual report with the ministry in gross violation of existing laws.
“Since its incorporation, SSCL has been granted over Rs 1,005 crore for various projects by the central and the state governments. In fact, several of these projects, such as construction of the commercial complex at Polo, redevelopment of the Laitumkhrah Market and other projects worth crores of rupees have already been awarded to contractors and work is ongoing,” he had said.
Tynsong had termed the charges as baseless and politically-motivated. He said the book of accounts was audited by the statutory auditor recently and vetted by the CAG.
He also dismissed the allegation that more than Rs 1,005 crore has been sanctioned to the SSCL – the special purpose vehicle set up by the state government to monitor the project. He said till date, only an amount of Rs 251 crore has been sanctioned which includes Rs 55 crore from the state share and Rs 196 crore from the Centre.
