Suspected fraud in Odisha scholarship scheme: CAG report

“… due to the non-incorporation of detailed criteria in the system, as well as lack of monitoring on the part of the department, 5,185 students had already been granted scholarships of Rs 15.79 crore, irregularly,” said an audit officer quoting the report.

While joint physical inspection of 16 institutes affiliated by NCVRT and BSS were carried out in September and October 2021 in presence of the auditor, it was found that eight of these 16 verified during the joint verification were not in existence. The other eight had stopped functioning from 2020, after rejection of their applications by the DWO.

One institute in Mayurbhanj district did not have its own physical infrastructure like classroom, workshop and staffroom and was using the infrastructure of another neighbouring institute. In seven other institutes, the infrastructure was found to be inadequate compared to the number of students admitted. In one institute, only classrooms were available for 792 students and the institute had no workshop for students.

The CAG recommended the state government to investigate the suspected fraud in the payment of PMS in all districts to fix responsibility on the defaulting officials. It also asked the state SC/ST development department, implementing agency of the PMS, to frame detailed guidelines for inspection of institutes, prior to their registration on the scheme portal.

The audit report also stated that as many as 2,996 students of 22 sampled institutes in six sampled districts had been paid PMS, amounting to Rs 7.36 crore during 2017-18 to 2020-21, even after their discontinuance of the concerned courses. Due to non-interlinking of softwares meant for PMS and Medhabruti scheme, 11,880 students had been granted both  PMS and Medhabruti during 2017 to 2021 — observed the CAG.