Bangalore: When the BWSSB detected that Rs 10 lakh, paid by consumers towards beneficiary contribution capital was pilfered in K.R. Puram area, the body has taken a suo motu action and is checking the accounts of all the sub-divisions in the city. The BWSSB has hired accountants and has formed batches of inspection officers to go through the accounts of the sub-division.
“We are checking the accounts as there could be many more such cases of wrongdoing in other parts of the city. We want to rule out that possibility. The board officials are checking the accounts now, but we want to hire outside accountants to be completely sure that there is no pilferage and to detect them if there are any. The audit will help us recover the money quickly ,” said M.S. Ravishankar, Chairman, BWSSB.
“A BWSSB official and a meter reader, who was on contract with the BWSSB, made duplicate bank seals and swindled the money.”
“The BCC paid by the consumers was not deposited into the bank account, but fake challans (as proof that the money had been deposited) were attached with the applications to get water connections.
The case was detected last month and investigated. The meter reader’s contract was terminated, while a BWSSB official, a water inspector, was suspended. We recovered Rs 10 lakh from them, but we have lodged a police complaint as the case involves forging bank seals,” Ravishankar said.
After the fraud came to light, the BWSSB has decided to accept only demand drafts instead of bank challans for BCC payment. “This is to ensure that no pilferage or fraud occurs while paying the amount,” he said.
“There could be more similar cases or pilferage of different kind in other sub-divisions as well. We have taken up the auditing across the city to detect such fraud,” he added.
