Money charged as fees from candidates appearing in various examinations conducted by the Jammu Kashmir Public Service commission JKPSC has been spent on refreshment of its officers.
An internal probe into the misappropriation of funds in the JKPSC has revealed that a major portion of the examination fees charged from candidates is spent on refreshment of officials of the agency with an IAS cadre officer drawing Rs. 1.45 lakh during the past two years, PTI has reported.
The issue of misusing funds by the commission came to light after several of its officers expressingly favoured reduction in fees charged from candidates, instead of using it for refreshment of officials and other employees.
While the IAS officer drew Rs. 1.45 lakh as refreshment charges for 23 months, even a Class IV (Safaikaramchari) benefited from the largesse, ending up Rs. 45,000 richer, the news agency wrote.
The probe revealed that around 30 officers have drawn a total of Rs. 22 lakhs.
The PSC charges Rs. 500 per candidate per examination conducted by the commission for recruitment to the posts referred to it by the state government.
The state government has put a ceiling of Rs. 7,500 as refreshment or overtime charges per employee per year.
The officers withdrew the money claiming they worked overtime to complete “urgent works”.
Several members of the commission, however, have objected to the chairman of the PSC as well as the state government to put an end to the practice of misusing examination fees.
“If there is so much of excess funds available with the PSC, it is better to reduce the fees charged from candidates.
Most of them are unemployed and come from poor families,” PTI quoted as saying a member of the commission.
The in-house probe has recommended a thorough enquiry into the matter by an independent government agency and also reffering the issue to the finance department of the state government for post-facto regularisation of expenditure already made.
It has also recommended an immediate stop on payment of any amount on account of honorarium, refreshment or overtime to employees from the fund raised from fees.
