Andhra Bank staffer swindles money : AB to pay ` 1.71 cr to RECS

Cheepurupalli (Vizianagaram): Andhra Bank of Cheepurupalli branch will pay Rs 1.71 crore to Rural Electric Cooperative Society (RECS) soon. The funds, which were deposited by the RECS staff in Andhra Bank, were diverted to the personal account of a casher of that bank recently.

Later, it led to CBI inquiry and finally the bank management agreed to pay the money back.
RECS is a cooperative body, which purchases electricity from the government at a lesser price (45 paisa per unit) and sells to the customers at a higher price.

This is a cooperative body, which is being supervised by the state government. The society is serving to the needs of 56,000 domestic customers in Cheepurupalli, Garividi, Gurla and Merakamudidam mandals in the district.

It has its own area offices and infrastructure like service stations for transformers. It has around 130 regular staff, including engineers, sub-engineers, foremen, linemen and other technicians. The annual turnover of the society is around Rs.18 crore.

But recently the management has found that Rs.1.71 core was not credited into the account of the society. But after investigation, they came to know that the bank cashier had diverted the huge funds into his personal account and later the case was transferred to CBI.

Generally, the bill collectors of the RECS deposit the amount daily into the account of society in Andhra Bank at Cheepurupalli. Their daily collection would be around Rs 5 Lakh per day. But the cashier of the bank did not deposit the amount in the account of the RECS and diverted them to his personal account.

This fraud came to light in the recent audit inspection. Later, the bank suspended AAO G Sudhakar, JAO B Govindarajulu, P Appa Rao and G Rama Rao for negligence in duties and for not cross checking the accounts of the society.

Later, they complained to the top officials of Andhra Bank and based on that the internal vigilance and CBI inquiry was conducted.

The bank management has admitted that the cashier was the main culprit in that scam and would pay back the amount to RECS soon.

P Ramesh, Managing Director of RECS, said that Andhra Bank agreed to pay back the amount soon and now they are revoking the suspension on the four staff, who were placed under suspension for their negligence.