Suspecting scam by missing staffer, Chandigarh MC looks to SSP for help
Employee has access to its fixed deposits worth crores
Suspecting a scam, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has sought the Senior Superintendent of Police’s help to investigate the case of a missing outsourced employee of its accounts branch.
Sources said a letter was written to the SSP after the civic body found some discrepancies in the financial records and an employee of the accounts branch working on outsource basis missing.
The sources said the outsourced employee had access to information and receipts about the corporation’s fixed deposits (FDs) worth crores. The employee used to receive banking-related one-time passwords (OTPs) on his mobile phone. He also had access to the official email IDs of some officers.
The anomaly came to light as the civic body started reconciliation of its bank accounts. The reconciliation process was started following a direction of the UT Finance Department in the wake of the alleged Rs 590-crore fraud scam involving Haryana Government funds.
The Chandigarh Administration recently issued an advisory to all its departments, including the Municipal Corporation, to reconcile their bank accounts and shift operations exclusively to secure institutions.
An MC official said when an extensive exercise begun, it was found that an employee of the accounts department was missing for several days. The employee could not be contacted despite various attempts. His mobile phone was also switched off.
An MC official said the Chandigarh Smart City Limited kept its fund at IDFC First Bank. When the company closed its operation last year, the fund was transferred to the MC. In the wake of the scam in Haryana, the MC has withdrawn all funds from the private bank and transferred them to a nationalised bank.
