Officers of engg wing should get auditors’ nod for obtaining NLC

In a bid to check resource drain in the name of civil works and avoid litigation, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has directed all retiring officers of its engineering wing to secure the clearance of the auditors for obtaining a non-liability certificate (NLC).

Unless the board issues a NLC, officials would not be entitled to their retirement benefits. The board clarified its stance through an order issued on Wednesday specifying that all officers of the engineering wing should get the clearance from the Local Fund Audit, if the auditors have sought any clarification or posted any comments about their decisions in the audit report.

The Local Fund Audit Department scrutinises the transactions of the board and submits report to the High Court. The annual audit for two years has not been completed fully and the auditors have raised objections about certain civil works.

Though an unwritten norm, instances of officials in different sections securing NLC without the prior approval of the auditors were aplenty, board sources told The Hindu. This has incurred substantial financial loss and the board was unable to fix the onus on the retired officials.

The order is in line with a decision of the new board headed by A. Padmakumar to instil financial discipline and ensure that it is not losing funds in the name of civil works. The precaution would also help the board to get rid of the legal tangles in tracking and fixing the onus on retired officials for the work approvals issued by them, sources said.

Though the latest order was issued for a specific case, the board decision is understood to have been prompted to reiterate its stance following a surge in complaints about the fiscal indiscipline and lack of caution among officials in awarding and commissioning civil works, quite often exceeding the budget allocation.

This was one the major allegations raised against the previous board and now the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) is probing the allegations raised against the board members. The latest order was one of the preliminary steps initiated by the board to restrict awarding of civil works and sanctioning funds without evaluating its utility, sources said.