Over 49 lakh rupees spent on monitoring, travelling

Bajura, February 16

Budhinanda Municipality in Bajura spent more than Rs 49 lakh on monitoring and travelling in the fiscal 2018-19.

As per the recent report prepared by the Comptroller’s Office, the municipality has spent Rs 49,86,575 only on monitoring and travelling. The municipality has been directed to control unwarranted expenses as the amount spent for the purpose is much higher than the estimated budget.

The audit report prepared by the Comptroller’s Office stated that the municipality had shown in the papers submitted to the office that field monitoring and evaluation had been carried out for two to six days, but in reality monitoring work had been carried out only for a day.

Similarly, the report also states that travel allowance was released for the visit to Martadi. As per the rule, 25 per cent of the daily allowance is to be allocated for the day’s meal and transportation if the staff returns on the same day after getting the job done.

Financial Comptroller General Office, Bajura, said no travel allowance would be given to staffers if their permanent address was 15-kilometre distance from the place of deployment. Acting Chief at the office Dhan Bahadur Thapa said the municipality had spent excessively under the heading ‘monitoring and travelling’.

Meanwhile, accountant DB Dhakal at the municipality confirmed that Rs 49 lakh was spent under the heading. He added that expenses would be minimised in the current fiscal. However, Deputy Mayor and Monitoring Committee Coordinator Shristy Regmi of the municipality claimed that the monitoring committee had not misused  even a single paisa.