more-in The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has recommended attachment of property and filing of civil and criminal cases against former BDA officials, who allegedly diverted a huge amount of money into mutual funds that resulted in losses to the government. The PAC, which went into the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report during 2014-2015 on ‘Investments in mutual funds by BDA’, has said that the attachment of all properties of all the accused has to be taken up soon to recover the loss. The report, which was tabled in the legislature on Friday, said that during the tenure of BDA Members (Finance) Sandeep Dash, M.N. Seshappa and B. Gangappa, a total of Rs. 4,046.45 crore had been invested in mutual funds unofficially that had led to a total losses of Rs. 192.41 crore by the end of July 2015. A total of Rs. 50.71 crore had been paid as commission by MF companies to agencies through which the investments were made, the PAC has said, suspecting that the money may have reached the members or their benamis. Also, Rs. 50 crore from the authority’s pension fund had been diverted to mutual funds in June 2013 and by July 2015, BDA had lost Rs. 9.5 crore. The committee has also noted that several bank accounts had been opened without authorisation from the BDA commissioner and the details of these bank accounts had not been furnished for the annual financial statements. The member-finance would issue oral instructions to bank officials, who are also involved in the scam, to invest in mutual funds, the PAC has said. Further, it has also noted that Rs. 10.11 crore had been transferred to Coffee Board, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation and Karnataka Backward Classes Department’s Building Construction Association. These organisations have not returned the money to BDA yet, it noted. A second division clerk managed all banking transactions from the start to the end, and the accounts that he maintained had not been verified by any official. The PAC noted that while there had been no internal audit, the authority’s chartered accountants, who audited the accounts, had also failed to notice these illegal investments in MFs.

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