Misappropriation slur: Report holds CEM, EM responsible

By Our Reporter

SHILLONG, MAR 27: The report of the House Committee of the KHADC has held the Chief Executive Member and the Executive Member in-charge Finance responsible for issuing directions to the former secretary of the Executive Committee in the case of alleged of misappropriation of Council funds.

The House Committee (HC) was constituted last month to go into the findings of the Inquiry Committee headed by the District Council Court Judge on issues which include the illegal transfer of Council’s funds to private bank accounts.

“The matter being very serious and germane with prima facie involvement of the present CEM and some of his colleagues including NA War, the matter may be further inquired by the House as may be deemed fit,” stated the report which was tabled in the Special Session convened here on Monday.

Referring to the statement made by the former secretary Welljune Syiemlieh both written and oral, the HC said, “It is evident that all the major transactions were done by the then secretary at the direction of the CEM PN Syiem and EM Neil Antonio War.”

It also stated that such withdrawal and transfer of Council’s fund into the private account of the then secretary is a clear violation of the Fund’s Rules of the Council as it was done without following office procedures.

Out of the total Rs 1.52 crore withdrawn and transferred from the KHADC accounts maintained at Nongpoh and Nongstoin Branch of Meghalaya Rural Bank (MRB), Rs 9.87 lakh is still remaining with Syiemlieh.

It also revealed that based on written order of CEM Rs 35 lakh was paid to the Khasi Heritage Conservation Forum (KHCF) on March 30, 2016. The KHCF in its statement showed to have received Rs 57.22 lakh in 2013 while Syiemlieh paid only Rs 36 lakh.

Moreover, the amount of Rs 1.22 lakh paid to the KHCF could not be substantiated by any supporting documents even as it stated that the total amount paid to the KHCF was Rs 72.47 lakh from 2013 to 2016.

Besides, the report also revealed that the claim for payment of Rs 16 lakh to casual employees could not be substantiated by the then secretary.

Stating that the findings and observation in this respect are not conclusive, the HC indicated that Syiem and War could not be examined by the Committee on the entire content so as to come to the final conclusion.

Further, the House Committee also stated that fixing the entire onus on Syiemlieh merely on the pretext that all the transactions was done by him will be a travesty of fact and miscarriage of justice as he was acting under order of his political bosses.

“The apparent complexity of the aforesaid authorities cannot be undermined just by shifting the onus on the then secretary after his retirement thereby covering the dirt under the carpet,” it stated.