Dechen Dolkar

According to the annual audit report, covering the period from July 2021 to March 2023, RBP Division-III in Phuentsholing had instances of payments made without adequate supporting documents totalling Nu 2.6 million. These amounts were recorded as expenditures under different budget lines.

In some cases, disbursement vouchers were printed from the system and produced for verification when missing vouchers were discovered during the audit. Additionally, disbursement vouchers approved and authorised in e-PMS without supporting documents were also not signed by the head of the agency.

The accountant has also directly transferred Nu 2.9 million from a letter of credit (LC) account to his personal savings account while serving as the accountant of the division-V of Gelephu region from July 2021 to January 2022.

The disbursement voucher for this transfer was prepared, verified, and approved by himself and the payment instructions were also authorised in e-PEMS by himself.

However, an amount of Nu 2.5 million was recovered from the accountant.

Similarly, the audit observed that the accountant had misused funds through excess payment of credit bills and transferred Nu 31,156 into his personal savings account during the financial year from July 2021 to June 2022 in Division-V of the Gelephu region.

Furthermore, at RBP Division-III in Phuentsholing, the same accountant had repeatedly adjusted the same bills and misused funds amounting to Nu 178,482.

The audit noted that some claims/bills were not relevant to RBP Division-III in Phuentsholing and were “intentionally” adjusted by the accountant, totalling Nu 132,659.

The audit has asked the RBP to recover the misappropriated amounts and initiate legal action against the accountant.

The RBP said that misappropriation of funds was carried out knowingly and deliberately by the accountant.

Further verification revealed that certain documents related to the misappropriated funds were not submitted to the controlling officer for verification before payment. The accountant knowingly disregarded financial rules by repeatedly disbursing payments.