A major financial fraud has just been uncovered in Mumbai for the Mumbai Police department. The police say that about Rs 6.5 crore in salary was wrongfully paid to ten people who were never employed in actual service by the police, and the fraud has been reported by the Mumbai Crime Branch to be investigated. Early on the police had found out that these 10 people were just records from official records and never in the working Mumbai Police and not in actual service.
Those 10 staff members were never in the service and yet their salaries were paid in their name consistently for nearly 2 years, so the state has lost a huge amount of money (about Rs 6.41 crore) to the state exchequer. The fraud was probably in place for a good part of 6-7 years and it was only detected during a routine internal audit.
The internal audit showed major anomalies in the payroll records and the attendance logs of the department. Investigators suspect officials and administration staff in the police administration were responsible for the fraud, sources say. The phantom employees were regularly marked in the payroll and the monthly salaries went through without any particular suspicion. The discrepancies were discovered when an extensive review of the old employee records and the electronic salary transactions were done then, the investigation discovered serious weaknesses in personnel transfers and old payroll records and even took a closer look at the employee payroll and the attendance records. The scale and duration of the fraud has raised serious questions about internal financial controls and oversight in one of the largest metropolitan police forces in the country.
Following all these worrying revelations, cases have been filed against a number of police officers and local officials and some administrative staff members who are suspected of having direct involvement in the criminal conspiracy. Two senior officials, in addition, have been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation which continues. Given the seriousness of the allegations and the likelihood of a larger conspiracy in place within the administrative system the Mumbai Police decided to refer the entire matter to the Crime Branch.
Investigators are now expected to trace the flow of money, identify the real beneficiaries of the wrongful salary payments and determine whether there are more ghost employees who are in the digital and physical payroll system at the moment.
