FOX IN THE CHICKEN COOP:MEGHALAYA

Heard about the proverbial “fox in the chicken coop,” but never: “Speaker vacated the residence in May 2008; there was no trace of the Rs. 11.81 lakh-poultry coop!”

Sounds bizarre, but its true. The Assembly secretariat incurred a loss of Rs. 11.81 lakh due to submission of a “fictitious bill” for construction of a poultry coop at the official residence of former speaker, MM Dangoo.

But, what takes the cake is that when the speaker vacated his official residence neither the coop nor a single chicken was present at the residence!

“Approval of such construction (poultry coop) at the official residence (speaker) from the public money was not only unethical but also unauthorised,” the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report castigated.

This is not the first instance that the CAG has unearthed financial mismanagement during Dangoo’s tenure as a Speaker of the legislative assembly.

Dangoo did not hand over goods installed in his residence before vacating his official residence in May 2008.

Included in the list of items were: two Sony LCD TV 50 inch worth Rs 7,87,500, one set of PIV Lenovo worth Rs 1,40,712, one air conditioner worth Rs 1,92,440, three wall fan worth Rs 23,400.

A cycling machine, tread mill, weight machine, pixna, TFT monitor, revolving chair (one each) were also purchased by the then speaker.

Moreover, two dining tables worth Rs 1,03,500 a 2857.14 sq m of carpet worth an amazing Rs 23 lakh were purchased .

Security-related items such as CCTV, additional cameras, intercom PABX valued at Rs 1.94 crore were also not returned. In all goods worth crores of rupees were missing after Dangoo vacated his official residence.

Meanwhile, the poultry coop’s construction was done by a contractor without “detailed plan, estimates, administrative approval and technical sanction.” Besides, no tender was called to assess competitive rates, the CAG report said.

Non-existence of the poultry coop indicates a fraudulent payment of Rs. 11.81 lakh has been made on fictitious bill – now that’s making mincemeat of public money.