Panchayat staff told to return dues to contractors

According to official sources, the nine contractors had paid the Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) for tenders floated by the panchayat union. 

The deposit, aimed at ensuring the bidder does not submit a dummy bid or back out at time of tender opening, usually amounts between 1.5 and 2.5 per cent of the total work value. The moneyis returned once the workis over.

The nine affected contractors had repeatedly sought the return of their EMDs for the work undertaken in 2015-17.

However, the then BDO Leo Paul Nirmal Kumar, Deputy BDO Abdul Khalil, Accountant Karthikeyan and Junior Assistant Venkataraman had allegedly refused to repay the Rs.1.60 lakh owed to them citing various excuses.

This led to the contractors petitioning the District Collector, who on enquiry found the issue to be true.

Sources revealed that the amount split among the four worked out to Rs 15,000 for Leo Paul Nirmal Kumar, Rs 32,000 for Khalil, Rs 44,000 for Karthikeyan and Rs 69, 000 for Venkataraman.

Meanwhile, Leo Paul Nirmal Kumar and Venkataraman had retired from service, while Khalil and Karthikeyan were transferred to other departments within Vellore.

Taking action on the complaint, Raman has issued orders asking the four to repay the amount in ten installments from either their salary or pension.

When contacted, Raman told DT Next, “This is not a case of misappropriation as the money must have been used for various official purposes. 

Thus, the amounts would not have been repaid on time. This is common in most government offices, where officials are forced to switch funds from one account to another to ensure that the official work remains unaffected.”

“Of the four officials, Leo Paul Nirmal Kumar had repaid the amount before retiring,” the Collector added.