THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Proceedings against government officials who have illegally received social welfare pensions are continuing. 31 officials of the Public Works Department were suspended today. The money illegally collected by them will be recovered with 18 percent interest. It was found that 47 people in the Public Works Department had received pensions illegally. 15 of them are currently working in other departments. One retired from service. According to the Finance Department report, 1458 government employees have received welfare pensions illegally.
1458 people ranging from gazetted officers to college teachers were illegally receiving social welfare pensions of Rs 1600 per month. The fraud was discovered during an investigation conducted by the Information Kerala Mission following the instructions of the Finance Department. Two and three-quarter crores a year i.e. about 23 lakh rupees in a month are lost from the government exchequer due to this.
The scam came to light when the Aadhaar numbers in the Seva software that managed the pension list and the Spark software for disbursing salaries of government employees came out the same. There are 62 lakh people on the pension list. The government had said that it would conduct a wide-scale investigation after finding that there are people who are illegally collecting pensions.