Hoaxwagen babus may face the music

HYDERABAD: With Volkswagen promising to pay back the cash pirated by Vashishta Wahan, the focus has now shifted to issues like criminal liability and failure of officials to act as trustees of public money.
The payment made without authorisation and other procedural irregularities has caused an interest loss to the exchequer. The money was paid in January and is likely to be returned by July-end."Even assuming a 5 per cent interest rate, the loss of interest will run to over Rs 25 lakh,��� an official said.
According to the rule book, the officials who permitted payment of the money will have to face disciplinary action and also civil and criminal liability. The civil liability part can be ignored if the money is recovered from the employee concerned. But financial loss to the treasury due to the action of the officials is a serious matter. The flight of capital amounts to criminal misconduct, top officials say.
With the focus on the violation of rules, the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) stands exposed. A senior official who worked with APIIC for a long time says the corporation does not invest the money as equity without any clear agreement between both partners specifying the pattern of investment in the proposed joint venture.