Navy and CBI to investigate Rs 7 crore financial scam

Mangalore Today News Network

Mumbai, Nov 13, 2017 : The Indian Navy and the CBI are probing an alleged fraud where financial management system was compromised to raise and clear fake bills worth around Rs 7 crore at its Mumbai-based Western Naval Command.

 

"The unique identity and password of a computer, from which the bills were supposed to be initiated, were used to raise bills based on demands of the various units under the Western Command and were sent to the auditors and accounts sections for clearance," a Navy source told Mail Today.

"The bills raised from the computer were deleted but its processing continued and so far, it has been detected that seven payments to the tune of Rs 6.7 crore were made in 2016 that have been prima facie found to be fraudulent," the source added.

Defence sources said the matter has been handed over to the CBI, which is now going to probe clearances of several other major bills related to the Navy and cleared by the Defence ministry’s accounts officers belonging to the Controller General of Defence’s accounts department.

"It is believed that the scam will get bigger and more fraudulent transactions are likely to be detected," sources also said.

The matter has already been brought to the notice of Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who has asked the Navy to expedite its probe in the alleged scam, as per sources.

The Navy has instituted a Board of Inquiry (BoI) under a Commodore-rank officer for the probe. The computer used to raise the fake bills was based in Western Naval Command and operated by a Commander-rank officer.

Already, five officials from the office of Principal Controller Defence Accounts, Navy in Mumbai have been put under suspension due to the ongoing probe by CBI.

Sources said the agency would look into the collusion of officials from the Navy, PCDA and auditors in allowing the scam to happen where, after the release of payments, documents were destroyed to remove any trace of the wrongdoings.

Surprisingly, the naval budget management system known as Financial Information System was created to increase transparency and speed of transactions related to naval budget spending for operational purposes.


courtesy: India Today