ITAHARI: A school principal in Itahari is in hot water after spending Rs 8 million mistakenly credited to his school’s account.
Itahari Sub-metropolitan City was supposed to deposit Rs 736,663 into the account for the salary of three months and Dashain allowance for seven school teachers at Shanti Sirjana Secondary School for the fiscal year 2022/23. However, a municipality staffer mistakenly credited Rs 8,824,243 into the account.
The school principal, Kamal Timsina, was aware of the large amount credited to the school’s account managed by him. Instead of reporting it to the municipality, he spent the entire amount.
The incident came to light after an internal audit of the sub-metropolis revealed the overpayment of Rs 8,087,580.
Following the audit, the sub-metropolitan city sent letters to the principal on July 11 and 17, demanding the return of the money.
A staffer of the sub-metropolitan city stated that schools were asked to verify the amounts before disbursement, but no response was received from this school.
Ramcharitra Mehta, chief administrative officer of Itahari Sub-Metropolitan, said the school must return the excess money from any source. He warned of potential consequences, including pension cuts, if the money is not returned within 90 days. “It should be returned as a government due with interest,” he added.
Principal Timsina has admitted his mistake and returned Rs 1.4 million so far. He claimed the school was in a financial crisis and the money was spent on school expenses but did not provide details.
Timsina, who is affiliated with the teachers’ union associated with CPN (Unified Socialist), said he has no source to return the money. “It all happened due to the delay in conducting the internal audit of the sub-metropolitan city,” he added. “It would have been easier to return the money had they conducted the internal audit earlier.”
