266 kg gold missing from Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple: Audit report

As much as 266 kg gold is missing from the famed Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, said former chief government auditor Vinod Rai in his audit report that he submitted to the apex court on Friday. According to media reports,of the 893 kg gold that was given out for various works, only 627 kg has been returned to the temple. Rai was asked by the Supreme Court last year to conduct an audit of the temple's books and accounts. A division bench of Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice A.K. Patnaik last April in its interim order had asked Rai to undertake the audit of the temple accounts and properties for the past quarter of a century. This directive came on the recommendations of amicus curiae Gopal Subramaniam, who had sought overhauling of the functioning of the temple. Apart from asking Rai to audit the accounts of the temple, the apex court also directed the formation of a new five-member committee comprising of a judge from the capital city, the temple tantri, chief nambi of the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple and two more members, of which one will be appointed in consultation with the state government and one would be the choice of the judge.

It was in July 2011 that an apex court committee stumbled upon six vaults in the temple and with just vault B left to be opened, the treasure that has been found in the other five vaults have been estimated to be valued more than Rs.100,000 crore. Since then, armed security guards besides state of the art security equipment has been deployed for the safe upkeep of this treasure. Reacting to the new developments, Communist Party of India-Marxist legislator V.Sivankutty said that a few years back all hell broke loose when V.S.Achuthanandan said that things are not going the way it should go in the temple as far as the priceless treasures upkeep are concerned and blamed the Travancore royal family. "Look, what Rai has come out with in his report. There are some views from some quarters that the issues of this temple should be hushed up. Now with this report, responsibilities should be fixed and those people who have caused this should be brought to light," he said.

The erstwhile Travancore Royal Family with its headquarters in the capital city is however yet to react on Rai's report. Mr. Rai’s report follows a Supreme Court order on April 24, 2014 to conduct a special audit of the temple and its properties “as early as may be possible”. He points to how the B Kallara was opened twice in 1990 and fives times in 2002. “Silver ingots were taken out and gold vessels were deposited and subsequently taken out,” the report said. The audit was prompted by an exhaustive but damaging amicus report filed by senior lawyer Gopal Subramanium — an outcome of a 35-day stay on the temple premises — that indicated that gold and silver jewellery offered by devotees to the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple were not accounted for by the temple administration. Graft alleged The report had complained of corruption, filth, and disregard of ethics in the temple’s administration.

Alarmed by the report, the court had invited Mr. Rai as the Special Audit Authority on Mr. Subramanium's suggestion. In what seems to be a sequel of the amicus’ findings, Mr. Rai said: “preliminary audit findings point towards deficiencies and inadequacies in maintenance of records. There is also incomplete information provided in the records for the weight and purity of the gold and silver items. Auction process The tendering and auction process needs streamlining. The register of temple assets is not also up-to-date”. Mr. Rai said, “prima facie, there is lack of financial control of the custody and use of precious articles”.

He said over 72 audit notes have been sent to the temple management on the discrepancies and deficiencies, but most of them have not been replied to. Comprehensive audit The former CAG proposes to conduct a complete audit of records of the past 15 years in the first phase, and then audit the records of the preceding 10 years in the second round. Mr. Rai said there is no credible accounting procedures in the temple administration. He said the long-term objective of this Special Audit is to draw up a “comprehensive and appropriate system of accounting drawing on lessons from the deficiencies of the prevailing system”.