Guna treasury officer suspended over Rs 2.7 crore `scam' in stamp sale

The Madhya Pradesh government on Saturday suspended the district treasury officer of Guna in connection with alleged irregularities in the sale of stamps causing a loss of Rs 2.70 crore to the exchequer, officials said. A First Information Report was registered against a cashier in the case earlier this week for allegedly issuing revenue, judicial, notarial and special adhesive stamps but not recording the transactions. An inspection of the Guna treasury conducted on December 17 and 18 by the joint director, treasury and accounts, Gwalior, showed a mismatch between the stock recorded on Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) portal and the actual stock, officials said. District treasury officer Rakesh Kumar then wrote to the Cantonment police station on January 21, seeking registration of an FIR. Accordingly, a First Information Report was registered against Keshav Verma, assistant grade-III cashier, on Wednesday under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Verma allegedly removed stamps worth Rs 3.74 crore but made entries for only Rs 1.04 crore. But the finance department also held treasury officer Kumar responsible for negligence and suspended him. The IFMIS system mandates online approval with the treasury officer's login for transfer of stamps, but Kumar allegedly ignored the procedure and permitted removal of stamps without system entries, the department said in a statement. Mandatory registers and acknowledgements were not maintained as required under the Madhya Pradesh Treasury Code, 2020, and stamps were issued to vendors without written applications or receipts, it added. Collector Kishore Kumar Kanyal said records related to stamps had not been maintained in the treasury since 2017-18.