Now, GHMC babus forge signatures

HYDERABAD: Certain officers in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) were found to be forging signatures and getting xerox copies of the signatures of the sanctioning authority without permission.The alarming development came to the notice of the Examiners of Account of the GHMC who in turn alerted senior officials. The officers in question were allegedly making copies of signatures of senior officials at the zonal offices to show as if administrative sanction had been granted for different works.Due to this fraudulent practice, lakhs of rupees have already been “sanctioned” for various works in the South Zone. An inquiry has been ordered to nail the culprits. Taking a serious view of the issue, GHMC Commissioner MT Krishna Babu, who examined the files with forged signatures a few days ago, issued a circular and directed all the zonal commissioners of the GHMC to file criminal cases against erring officials if any signatures were found to have been forged.He also directed all the five zonal commissioners of East, West, Central, South and North zones, Chief Examiner of Accounts, Chief Financial Advisors, Financial Advisors (FAs) and Examiner of Accounts (EAs) of the GHMC to forward all the files to the respective administrative sanctioning authority for verification and counter-signature before the audit wing of the FAs and EAs begin processing them.He also instructed the officials to scrutinise note files to ensure that administrative sanction is given as per the powers delegated by the commissioners to the sanctioning authorities.