December 8, 2022
Md Nadimul Haque’s Special Mention, asking for updates on the actions taken on compensating the victims of fraud and misappropriation of public funds by postal staff
Sir, I rise today to request the Government to update us on the actions taken to compensate the victims of fraud and misappropriation of public money by postal staff. Across the circles, in the States and Union Territories of Punjab, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Delhi, J&K, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report has cited a misappropriation of Rs. 95.62 crores of public money between November, 2022 and September, 2021.: It is very shameful that the postal staff have made fraudulent withdrawals from closed accounts that were shown as active with fake balances. Fake accounts were opened and fake deposit entries were made. Cash deposits by customers were entered in passbooks without being credited to their post office accounts. Fake signatures and thumb impressions were facilitated by the postal staff. There were cases of unauthorized use of user ID and passwords by other postal
staff or outsiders as well, leading to the fraud withdrawals. It is a matter of irresponsibility that Department of Post’s inspecting
authorities failed to detect the fraud even after a lapse of more than five years. They did not carry out prescribed internal checks and were marred with monitoring failures. As we know, the post office system was created to serve the investment needs of urban and rural clients through numerous schemes such as savings bank, recurring deposits, Kisan Vikas Patras, Public Provident Fund and Suknya Samriddhi accounts. These have turned into unreliable systems of corruptions and deceit. Thank you.
