Finance scam in Finance Dept:: Crores of rupees deposited in IRA remain missing
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, August 25 2013: With the officials of State Finance Department becoming dishonest in their works and carrying them out in their own sweet will, over crores of rupees that were supposed to be deposited in the Individual Retirement Account (IRA) of more than 5000 government employees have remained traceless.

As per specific guideline of the Central Government, the pension scheme of the Central Government employees and State Government employees was abolished from January 1, 2004 and January 1, 2005 respectively.

In place of the pension scheme, the Central Government initiated a National Pension System and provided Permanent Retirement Account (PRA) number to the employees for providing various benefits after retirement from service.

Under this new system, government employees have to produce 10 percent of their salary and the respective State Governments have to provide another 10 percent as it share.

The amount, thus, shared is to be deposited in the respective IRAs of the employees.

The amount deposited in the IRAs of the employees is again deposited with the company operating the scheme, which in turn gives out loan to others to generate interest.

Together with the interest accrued, the amount deposited is to be used for payment of monthly pensions to the employees after retirement.

All the employees of the State including IAS and IPS officers who were employed from 2005 should be given the benefit of National Pension System.

The employees should be provided their PRA number within three months of joining the service.

However, even though the PRA numbers of the employees have been provided, it has been found that over Rs 35,000 deposited against the name of each employee were missing on checking their statements of transaction.

When Hueiyen Lanpao investigated in the matter and studied the case of an employee, who joined the service as an employee of the State Government, the finding was indeed astonishing.

The PRA number of said employee who was employed in the year 2007 was given only in the month of July this year.

However, deduction of 10 percent from his salary for the National Pension System began right from the first month of his joining the service.

The amount, thus, deducted every month reached upto Rs 49,608 by July, 2013, the time he actually got his PRA number.

However, when the statement of account was checked it was found that his opening balance was just Rs 21,360 including his share and the contribution of the State Government.

In the following month onwards, an amount of Rs 1,378 was regularly deducted as his 10 percent share and the same amount was also contributed by the Government as its share.

But the most astonishing fact is that such a large amount of the money thus deducted from his salary right from the month he joined service was not reflected or included in his statement of accounts.

This clearly shows the overriding dishonesty among the officials of the Finance Department in performing their duties.

Since 2005, around 5000 police personnel have been employed in the service of the State Government and a number of employees recruited in the Education Department.

Besides, a number of IAS and IPS officers have joined office since then.

Even though the amount to be deducted from the salary differs from one employee to another due to difference in the pay scale, there have been various complaints over the deducted amount not included in their respective statement of accounts.

Even if the said amount missing from the statement of accounts of different employees are not misused by the officials of the Finance Department, it is believed that the said amount remains floating in the finance account of the Joint Secretary of the Department.

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