Scholarship: Rajya Sabha panel pulls up Culture ministry

A Rajya Sabha standing committee has pulled up the culture ministry for not appropriately allocating funds for scholarships under various schemes. The panel, headed by TMC MP Derek O'Brien, also mentioned the scam unearthed in the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training where ministry officials were found siphoning off scholarship funds to their own relatives, and stated that the involvement of other employees should be looked into.

"The occurrence of such a scam indicates loopholes in the supervisory mechanism for funds distribution. The Committee recommends revamping of the entire fund distribution in view of the lessons learnt from the scam," stated the report tabled on Friday. It added that software solutions could be adopted and employees should be trained on these matters.

The Committee stated that the scam, that ran into Rs 50 lakh, was unearthed when beneficiaries of the Cultural Talent Search Scholarship Scheme (CTSSS) started complaining about not receiving the grants. The ministry found that the money was already debited from the accounts of the CCRT, and an inquiry revealed that ex-contractual employee took the benefit of the introduction of the new mode of payment of Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS). He took the details of the beneficiaries and inserted the details of himself, his wife, mother and other relatives as claimants. An FIR was later filed at the Cyber Crime Cell (Economic Offences Wing) of the Delhi Police by CCRT, and the Deputy Director (Finance) was suspended and a CBI investigation has been initiated.

The committee suggested that a central database will help in proper utilisation of allocated funds, keep a check on frauds and maintain transparency. It recommended that a section of the ministry's website should show information on beneficiaries, the amount of grant received, previous works of the beneficiary, status of monitoring of the utilisation of the grant etc.

"The progress of activities performed by the beneficiaries should be monitored closely and at frequent intervals. Digital records may be kept of the activities performed by the beneficiaries wherever possible, in the form of photographs, videos etc," it noted.