By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Feb 28: The CAG has detected an excess disbursement of Rs 1.34 crore in COVID-19 relief to construction workers in Meghalaya, attributing the irregularities to inadequate verification of beneficiary records.
The audit report, tabled in the Assembly on Friday, revealed that the excess funds were released due to repeated credits made to beneficiaries sharing identical registration numbers, bank accounts, or names.
According to the audit, these deviations from government notifications occurred across all districts. The report identified four cases where multiple credits were issued against the same registration numbers, 16 cases involving identical bank accounts, and 262 cases where beneficiaries with the same names received duplicate payments.
In financial terms, the audit quantified the excess at Rs 20,000 for cases linked to identical registration numbers and Rs 80,000 for those involving the same bank accounts.
The CAG observed that the discrepancies stemmed from a lack of proper data verification prior to fund transfers, leading to payments that exceeded entitlements under the notified relief scheme.
