DM orders probe into irregularities in payment to NGOs

The District Magistrate here has ordered a high level probe into alleged irregularities in the payment of over Rs 18 lakh to some NGOs by district programme officer.
The NGOs had been assigned to serve cooked food to young kids at Aanganwadi centers of Phoolbehar and Ramiabehar blocks of the district.
On March 11, DM Kheri Kinjal Singh had issued instructions to district treasury officer and district programme officer in which she had specifically asked them not to make any payments till she approved them as per the recent government guidelines.
However, it came to the DM's notice yesterday that payments worth Rs 7,55,274 and Rs 11,06,490 were made to two NGOs respectively with no approval either from the district magistrate or chief development officer.

Taking serious note of this, the DM formed a three-member committee headed by chief development officer (CDO) Nitish Kumar to probe as to how these payments were made.
"In case, any violation of government guidelines regarding payments was established, stringent action would be ensured against the errant officials," DM Singh said.
Meanwhile, district programme officer Shayam Kumari denied any irregularity in the payments.
She said the restriction over payments came in January, however, the payments pertained to November 2014.