Bogus staff: MC chief recommends FIR against 51, seven suspended

Tribune News Service

Harshraj Singh

Ludhiana, January 5

After a major scam has been exposed in the Health branch of the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation, MC Commissioner Sandeep Rishi has recommended FIR against 51 persons, including 44 ghost employees (bogus employees who are not actually employed by the MC but are receiving payments) and seven MC employees allegedly involved in the case.

After the inquiry conducted by the MC, the seven employees have been suspended. With alleged connivance of the MC employees, arrears were deposited in bank accounts of the 44 fake employees. Also, six senior officials from Health, Accounts and Local Audit branches are also facing the heat as show-cause notices will be served on them too.

Following concerns raised by CAG last month, MC Commissioner Sandeep Rishi had ordered probe that revealed that arrears amounting to around Rs 2 crore were deposited into the bank accounts of 44 bogus employees who were not associated with the MC, Ludhiana. After the probe, the Commissioner suspended the seven MC employees — Rajesh Kumar (clerk, now sanitary inspector with the MC, Jalandhar), Ramesh Kumar Bobby (safai sewak), Mintu Kumar Bunty (safai sewak), Hem Raj (clerk, now sanitary inspector), Harsh Grover (clerk), Manish Malhotra (clerk) and Kamal Kumar (safai sewak).

Besides, show-cause notices will be served on senior officials, including Dr Jasbir Kaur (MOH), Dr Vipul Malhotra (MOH), DCFA Pankaj Garg, Accountant Sandeep Garg, Local Auditor Harmandeep Singh and Jyoti Sharma from the Local Audit branch, as per the inquiry report. The notices will also be served on six other persons — Jyoti, Ajay, Rajni, Santosh Rani, Sunil and Mamta.

Notably, the CAG team had recently conducted an audit of the Municipal Corporation’s records spanning from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023. The team had sought record of 46 employees of the MC. The requested documents include service books, step-up orders, recast of pay orders, ECR registers, and bank statements related to these employees for the audit.

Thereafter, the corporation’s investigation uncovered that step-up arrears were transferred to the bank accounts of 44 fake employees, whose service books and other documents were not found in the MC records. According to the investigation findings, 40 of the 46 persons whose records were sought by CAG were identified as fraudulent employees. Additionally, four more persons were discovered to be fake, bringing the total number of exposed bogus employees to 44 so far.

Commissioner Sandeep Rishi said a request has been made to the Police Commissioner to register an FIR against 51 persons, which includes 44 bogus employees and seven MC employees. According to the inquiry, these bogus employees were not working for the MC, yet arrears were transferred to their accounts. Additionally, show-cause notices have been ordered to be issued issue to six senior officials, and they will write to higher authorities for further action.

Questions have been raised regarding the involvement of some senior officials, as it is alleged that they approved documents for arrear transfers. The inquiry has revealed financial losses for the MC, and irregularities involving serious tampering with government records. The commissioner has also ordered an audit of records related to fake arrear bills approved between the period of January 1, 2021, to March 31, 2023, to be conducted by an independent agency.

According to MC sources, the authorities are currently also scrutinising the records of 16 other persons suspected of fraudulent activities. Consequently, there is a possibility that the count of bogus employees within the MC may rise.

Show-cause notices to be served on six

After the inquiry conducted by the Municipal Corporation, seven employees have been suspended. With the alleged connivance of the MC employees, arrears were deposited in bank accounts of the 44 fake employees. Also, six senior officials from Health, Accounts and Local Audit branches are also facing the heat as show-cause notices will be served on them too.

Count of fake staff may rise: sources

According to sources in the MC, the authorities are currently also scrutinising the records of 16 other persons suspected of fraudulent activities. Consequently, there is a possibility that the count of bogus employees within the Municipal Corporation may rise.

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