Khammam: Rs 7.32 crore DCCB funds siphoned off

Khammam: The District Cooperative Central Bank (DCCB) general body has approved of civil and criminal proceedings against the previous managing committee of the bank for alleged misuse of funds.

The move came against the backdrop of an enquiry report submitted by the Additional Registrar/Chief Auditor at the office of Commissioner of Cooperation and Registrar of Cooperative Societies, V Sumitra. The report was submitted to the bank on March 27.

The DCC Bank CEO, Atluri Veera Babu, informed on Monday that the bank's general body meeting held on Sunday discussed the report and approved the action suggested by the official. The details of the meeting would be sent to the government for further action.

According to the inquiry report, the previous managing committee, Board of Directors and president have allegedly misappropriated funds to the tune of Rs 7.32 crore. The government ordered inquiry in view of complaints by farmers from Penuballi and Sathupally mandals in the district.

The official held the entire previous Board of Directors, president Muvva Vijay Babu and CEO V Vasantha Rao responsible for the irregularities. The report listed 12 irregularities that stood against guidelines of NABARD and other agencies as well as the bye-laws of the DCCB.

The report said a loss of Rs 6.13 crore was caused to the bank's members. The money was collected as contribution towards RSN Trust and Hospital that were set up going against the bank's bye-laws, RBI guidelines and trust was not governed by the cooperative act.

None of the board members and managing committee had knowledge and expertise to establish a super specialty hospital. The entire process was aimed at earning political mileage and to siphon of funds in the guise of serving the farmers.

A loss of Rs 55.98 lakh was caused to the bank by incurring expenditure on study tours and there were no records or reports about the study tours. An amount of Rs 63.15 lakh was misused for gifting silver articles to the chairman, directors and household articles to employees.

The previous presidents were said to have involved excessively in day-to-day business. Loans were sanctioned indiscriminately to few people connected to the management and the loans thus sanctioned were categorised as non-performing assets (NPAs), the report said.