Times of India: Thiruvananthapuram: Monday, March 19, 2018.
After
detecting large-scale misappropriation of funds from the advocate welfare fund,
the government has decided to take over the control of printing of stamps and
yearly audit of the accounts, both of which are the duties of state bar
council, at present. For this purpose, the law department has decided to make
necessary changes to the Kerala Advocate Welfare Fund Act (1980), a proposal
that has been cleared by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The file in
this regard (accessed by TOI under RTI Act) says that it has been decided to
effectively control the functioning of the trustee committee (that manages the
fund). The responsibility of printing stamps will be done by the government and
state audit department will audit the accounts of the committee every year.
At the same
time, the recommendation of law secretary BG Harindranath - to amend that the
section 4 (3) (f) that appoints the bar council secretary as the ex-officio
secretary of the trustee committee - was rejected by law minister AK Balan. The
law secretary recommendation was to replace the bar council secretary as the
secretary of the trustee committee with an officer of the rank of deputy
secretary or above from the law department. It was the third step to ensure
transparency in the functioning of the trustee committee.
As per
Section 11 of the Act, the secretary is authorized to operate the bank accounts
of the trustee committee, inspect and verify periodically the accounts and
registers of the bar associations regarding the sale of stamps. To control the
large-scale misappropriations in the printing and sales of stamps, the law
department has decided to amend Section 22 of the Act, by taking over the
printing of stamps. The council will have the power only to sell stamps through
the bar associations or through outlets set up by the council. Also, the new
amendment says that the accounts relating to stamps shall be subject to
periodic inspection by an officer (not below the rank of a joint secretary)
from the finance department. A new section 10A will be introduced that says-
'the audit department shall audit the accounts of the fund every year and audit
report shall be submitted to the government in accordance with the Kerala Local
Fund Audit Act, 1994'.
After
detecting huge corruption in the advocate welfare fund intended for providing
financial relief to retired and serving advocates, the government had ordered a
vigilance probe. An audit done last year exposed serious irregularities,
including missing account books and how the books (that were available) were
manipulated to adjust misappropriation to the tune of Rs 70 lakh.
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