Patna, July 8: Financial irregularities in Bihar Legislative Council are not limited to legislators’ travel and daily allowance bills. Anomalies stretch from irregular payment to its secretariat to appointment.

The inspection report of the accountant-general (AG) of Bihar Legislative Council also speaks about claims made for refreshments by people not entitled to it and wastage of money for printing books.

The report reveals that out of the 159 gazetted employees in the Bihar Legislative Council, only 66 posts were sanctioned by the finance department. The chairperson of the House created the rest.

The House has made payment of over Rs 4.78 crore to the employees working in unsanctioned posts during the audit period 2006-07 to 2011-12.

According to the rule, the chairperson of the Council is entitled to create temporary posts for one financial year. In 2001, a committee of financial matters headed by then water resources minister Jagdanand Singh held that the temporary posts created by the chairperson without the consultation of the finance department may be sent to the finance department for advice and until then no further recruitment should be made.

Similarly the House of 75 MLCs has a secretariat where 677 non-gazetted employees work. Of them, only 343 posts are sanctioned by the finance department. The rest have been created by the order of the chairperson.

The AG in its report stressed that unauthorised payment of over Rs 16.24 crore had been made to the non-gazetted employees working on the unsanctioned posts during the audit period.

The audit scrutiny of service books of 49 assistants working in the secretariat of the House revealed that they had received excess payment to the tune of over Rs 40 lakh and the fixation of wages was done ignoring the finance department’s direction. The AG in its inspection report has suggested recovery of the excess payment from the assistants in three equal installments.

The audit indicated that the Council had paid over Rs 12.99 lakh on energy consumption. It paid Rs 6.35 lakh excess for books it published on the occasion of Bihar Vidhan Parishad Centenary Parishad.

The report pointed out that the Council had ordered publication of 2,000 copies each of eight books. As high as 1,100 to 1,400 copies of different books remained undistributed, the audit report noted.

The Council paid Rs 2.7 lakh between August 2009 and December 2011 to the secretariat canteen for food and beverage supplied to different MLCs having minister status like chief whips and their deputies of the ruling and the opposition parties, deputy leaders of the ruling party and the Leader of Opposition. The report maintains that there is no provision for refreshment or breakfast to members having the minister status and thus the payment is irregular.

The report also censured the House for spending Rs 17.26 lakh on repair and maintenance of nine departmental vehicles. The payment was made from 2008 to January 2012. The AG maintains that the House did not have the records of vehicle repair and the rules for repairing the vehicles were not followed.

It also has raised objection to the payment of Rs 9.6 lakh to a private agency for recording its proceedings on video and also for irregular maintenance of cashbook. The report maintained that over Rs 45 lakh was withdrawn between 2008-09 and 2010-11 and not entered in the cashbook.

The audit report has also questioned the purchase of sanitation material worth Rs 3.37 lakh from 2007 to 2010 when the maintenance and the cleaning work of the House was being done by the Patna division of the building construction department.