Fake bills: action against 162 government school teachers

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Fake bills: action against 162 government school teachers

HYDERABAD: The School Education Department on Thursday initiated disciplinary action against 162 teachers of government schools of nine districts for allegedly claiming medical treatment expenses by presenting fabricated bills.

These teachers hail from Adilabad, Khammam, Mahabubnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Ranga Reddy, Vizianagaram and Warangal districts.

The District Educational Officers concerned were instructed to take action against them and recover the defrauded amount within a fortnight.

“The DEOs would initiate disciplinary action, again inquire into the veracity of the bills presented by teachers and take appropriate criminal action depending on the findings,” senior officials of the School Education Department said.

Already, they had identified 51 teachers involved in submission of fake medical bills. Fourteen of them already retired. Disciplinary action was initiated against the remaining.

Rs. 2 cr. defrauded

These 213 teachers put together had allegedly defrauded the government nearly Rs.2 crore. The scam came to light a few weeks ago when the audit officials noticed some bills were not genuine. Meanwhile sources in Andhra Pradesh Upadhyaya Sangham (APUS), a registered and recognised teachers union, maintained that brokers pocketed a lion's share of the amount defrauded in the scam.

According to the sources, in one particular case, an upper primary school teacher from Nalgonda district was sanctioned Rs. 1.47 lakh for medical reimbursement. “But, the brokers paid him only Rs. 60,000,” they said maintaining that another teacher from the same district and his associates, who are believed to be behind scam, pocketed the remaining amount.

Similarly, one more teacher was given Rs. 75,000 though she was sanctioned Rs. 1.8 lakh. In both the cases, their colleague working in adjacent mandal allegedly played a key role by introducing persons preparing fake medical bills. This teacher reportedly approached many others with the lure of easy money and maintained links with employees in the Director of Medical Education office and paved way for clearance of the bills, sources said. More than 60 per cent of the sanctioned amount was shared by this gang.