CHENNAI: Anti-graft organisation Satta Panchayat Iyakkam has alleged that the State has paid over Rs 100 crore in subsistence allowances to suspended employees over three years, in contravention of its own regulations.
The convener of the organisation, Siva Elango, explained the procedural failure to the reporters on Wednesday. According to government orders, when an employee gets suspended, an enquiry must be initiated and concluded within six months. During the enquiry period, the employee is given a subsistence allowance of 50 per cent of their salary. If the enquiry extends beyond six months, this allowance is supposed to increase to 75 per cent.
However, Elango pointed to Government Order (GO) no. 180, which states that if the delay is caused by the suspended employee themselves, the allowance should be reduced to just 25 per cent of their basic pay. He alleged that this rule is routinely ignored, leading to unnecessary expenditures.
Through Right to Information (RTI) requests, the NGO obtained data from Rural Development, School Education, Registration, Tamil Nadu Housing Development Corporation, and Tangedco, for the period of 2019-2022.
The data revealed that these departments alone paid approximately Rs 33 crore in subsistence allowances to suspended employees without assigning them any work. Extrapolating from this, Elango estimated that the total amount paid across all government departments in this manner would be between Rs 100 crore and Rs 150 crore.
Elango emphasised that completing enquiries on time could save crores in taxpayer money. He also proposed a stricter accountability measure: "If an enquiry is delayed beyond the stipulated time, a certain amount should be deducted from the salary of the responsible enquiry officer and paid to the suspended employee."
The Satta Panchayat Iyakkam has submitted a formal representation to the state government containing eight recommendations to address this issue and prevent further loss of public funds.