Sonepur, July 5: An administrative inquiry headed by Sonepur collector Gagan Bihari Swain on Monday found misappropriation of funds to the tune of crores of rupees on various schemes implemented by the deputy director of agriculture (DDA) and the district agriculture officer (DAO) here.

Earlier, the district collector, on a surprise visit to the office of the DDA and DAO on Friday, had found the two officers absent and had sealed the two offices. The inquiry was conducted by a team of district officials in the presence of DSP, vigilance, Abhiram Kar, Sonepur police inspector in-charge, Dhiraj Chopdar, and charted accountant, Satyendra Padhi.

Speaking to mediapersons, the collector said the inquiry team had detected irregularities of more than Rs 1 crore in the implementation of the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) scheme by DDA and DAO.

“Under the ATMA scheme, there are serious irregularities in the cashbook, which has details of the work undertaken till April this year, but it has no signatures of the concerned officials. The officials of the department don’t have any written information about the amount spent on the scheme for the last few months. The cashbook at the office of the deputy director of agriculture has been updated till 31.03.2011, but it has no signatures of the concerned official since 11.11.2010,” Swain said.