Contractor printed signature of officer on bill, Accounts Department approved

Nagpur: The Department of Accounts and Finance of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) had allegedly joined hands with contractor Padmakar ‘Kolba’ Sakode in the bogus contracts scam. And the contractor had also ‘printed’ the signature of a head of the department on a forged file, And the Accounts and Finance Department has still cleared the bill completely and paid the amount to the contractor.

A Nagpur Municipal Corporation official has also told that fake contracts worth about Rs 74 lakh have come to the fore in the library department. Education Officer Priti Mishrikotkar is also the head of the department of this library. The contractor has got the signature of the officer scanned and printed on the note-sheet. Signatures in some files look completely original. But it is skewed in many files.

The Department of Accounts and Finance has overlooked the discrepancy even after the signature has been scanned and printed.

Municipal body has already suspended 3 employees from Accounts and Finance Department, And departmental inquiry (DE) is also going on against 5 including Chief Accounts and Finance Officer Vijay Kolhe.

Finance Department and Accounts

In the solid waste management, health, and birth and death registration departments, the contractor allegedly forged signatures of employees and officials with pens.

Another Nagpur Municipal Corporation official has also said that initially, 41 files of the health department turned out to be fake. The 3 fake contracts were also worth around Rs 3 lakh and were also approved by Kolhe, Who is the head of the Finance Department and Accounts. The bills for the rest were very low, around Rs 2 lakh, It was because of this that he was approved by Accounts Officer Rajesh Meshram. Those who have been suspended, and have also been arrested by the police. Kolhe has also claimed in response to the show-cause notice that his signature in the file was also forged.

Similarly, the contractor and his team had forged signatures of more than 10 officers and solid waste management, employees of health, library, and birth and registration departments.

The 7-member committee headed by Deepak Kumar Meena, Additional Municipal Commissioner, has not submitted its report yet. Even if its deadline has expired on the date of 23 December. The committee was constituted on the date of December 17 and the time limit for submission of the report was 7 days.

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