Kerala HC directs Principal Accountant General, KSDA Senior Deputy Director to appear over irregularities in Guruvayoor Devaswom Audit

The Kerala High Court directed the Senior Deputy Director of the Kerala State Audit department to appear in person and report on the current status of the audit of the Guruvayoor Devaswom Board. Additionally, the Accountant General (Accounts and Powers) Kerala has been asked to report whether the audit deficiencies of the Guruvayoor Devaswom Board identified by the Kerala State Audit Department (KSDA) in 2023 have been satisfactorily remedied.

The audit department had informed the court that the Board had failed to formulate a ‘foolproof system’, leading to accounting difficulties, implementing modern technology to facilitate cashless transactions and provide prompt assistance to devotees in collecting vazhipadu. The department was not informed about the software’s operating procedures and cybersecurity protocols. Moreover, the Statutory Audit Wing has not been given any training or demonstration in this regard.

It was also reported that accounting rules regarding transactions were not established, there were delays in the delivery of annual accounts, valuables were not subjected to annual physical verification, and login information was not provided in software-based online receipts.

Objections have not been concluded yet

The court observed that from the affidavits filed in 2023, audit objections for the years 2002-03 to 2019-20, involving billions of rupees, are still not closed. It was also submitted that despite 43 years from the formulation of the Guruvayur Devaswom Rules (1980), physical verification of movable properties, including jewelery and gold, has not been carried out. Apart from gold and silver, large bronze vessels received as gifts, Kashmiri saffron, etc. It was stated that valuables worth lakhs of rupees were also not recorded in proper records by the Board.

In this regard, the Bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan and KV Jayakumar directed the Guruvayoor Devaswom Management Committee to appoint a corporate consultant to conduct a comprehensive study of the existing administrative and financial processes and recommend the adoption of appropriate software solutions to integrate the various functions of the Board into a seamless digital platform.