Shroff accused of stealing Minuwangoda DS funds

BY: TILAKARATNE DISSANAYAKE

A shroff attached to the Minuwangoda Divisional Secretary’s office was interdicted for her involvement in a massive fraud of Rs. 1.4 million.

She was accused of having misappropriated the balance money returned by the post offices after making the monthly payments to the poor from the relief fund.

Gampaha Government Agent J.J. Ratnasiri said that he had initiated a departmental inquiry into the fraud which would be conducted separately in addition to the on going police investigations into the matter. The GA said that excess funds could be returned by money order to the Divisional Secretariat by post offices in the event of a change in address, the death of beneficiaries or any other reason that made it impossible for the money to be given over to the recipient.

He said that the shroff had been misappropriating the money that was to have been credited to the government account since 2011. He pointed out that the fraud was due to lack of supervision of her duties by several senior officials who would be held responsible for negligence of duty on their part.

The fraud had been discovered during an audit of the accounts that was conducted in order to request for additional allocations. The Gampaha Division Crime Investigation Unit was said to be conducting investigations into the matter on the instructions of SSP Vijitha Komasaru.