Haj panel partial to ‘miscellaneous expenses’

hyderabad: state haj committee (shc) officials have been claiming varied amounts under the “miscellaneous expenses� head for various programmes that were never held or the expenditure, as shown in the accounts, not incurred by the shc. incidentally, there is no provision in the central haj act allowing the shc to organise such functions. “miscellaneous expenses� appears to be the favourite head in the (shc) account books.anything that cannot or should not be mentioned under a proper head of expense, ends up being clubbed in this category. in 1999, the shc paid rs 61,039 towards “miscellaneous expenses� to conduct haj seminar and a public meeting in honour of roshan baig, a minister from karnataka. though the function was private in nature and organised to felicitate the minister, the entire expenses were borne by the shc. similarly, the shc paid rs 1,83,179 in 2000 and rs 1,02,433 in 2001 towards “miscellaneous expenses� for conducting haj seminars, public meetings, arranging conferences, travelling, seasonal expenses and orientation training camps. almost all the training camps throughout the state were organised in different mosques free of cost. though the shc has not organised a single public meeting since 1999, it has been paying for these meetings. in 2002, the shc paid nearly rs 1.5 lakh under the head “miscellaneous expenses�. according to sources, most of the amounts that were paid under this category were without proper bills. it is also alleged that the personal expenditures of some of the shc officials were also shown as shc’s “miscellaneous expenses�. however, except for 2002, the shc is learnt to have discarded most of the bills submitted towards these “miscellaneous expenses�. besides this, the shc officials have been introducing new heads in their accounts every year. for instance, in 2000, according to the annual financial statement, rs 23,350 was paid for “computer stationery repair and reward payments�. similarly, in 2001, two more heads “printing and stationery and contingents�, and “computer printer and rewards� were introduced and the shc paid rs 45,000 and rs 27,250 under these heads respectively.