A salary scam worth about Rs 35 crore has been found in Bihar, after an audit of the education department showed that excess salary payments were made through the HRMS portal across 38 districts. The audit report, dated 4 November, found 7,202 excess withdrawals, and about Rs 33 crore has been recovered so far.
What the audit found
The audit covered salary payments made through the HRMS portal, the Human Resource Management System used to process pay for government staff. It found that the portal had been manipulated to make excess withdrawals, with payments going out that were more than what was due. In all, 7,202 excess withdrawals were found across 38 districts. The total amount involved was about Rs 35 crore. The audit report was dated 4 November, and the findings were reported on 9 November. The scale of the scam, spread across 38 districts, points to a systematic misuse of the portal rather than a single error. The audit has not yet named the people responsible, and the investigation into how the portal was manipulated is still going on.
How much money has come back
About Rs 33 crore of the Rs 35 crore has been recovered so far, according to the reports. That leaves about Rs 2 crore still to be recovered, though the final figures may change as the investigation continues. The recovery of most of the money is unusual for a scam of this size, and it suggests that the excess payments were traced quickly once the audit flagged them. Officials have not said how the money was recovered, or whether it was returned by the people who received it or seized by the authorities. The education department, whose salary payments were affected, has not yet said what action it has taken against the staff involved. The audit report is expected to lead to further action, including fixing the gaps in the HRMS portal that allowed the manipulation.
Why the HRMS portal matters
The HRMS portal is used to process salaries for large numbers of government employees in Bihar. A flaw or misuse in such a system can lead to large losses before it is noticed, because the payments are made in bulk and across many districts. The scam raises questions about the checks in place on the portal. Salary systems usually have more than one level of approval, and the audit will need to establish how the excess withdrawals passed those checks, and whether the checks were missing or were bypassed. Similar salary and pension scams have been found in other states, often through fake entries in payroll systems. The Bihar case is notable for the number of districts involved and the speed with which most of the money was recovered.
What happens next
The audit findings are likely to lead to a wider review of salary payments in Bihar, and to changes in how the HRMS portal is monitored. Officials will need to explain how the manipulation went undetected, and what safeguards will be put in place to stop it happening again. The investigation is still at an early stage, and more details are expected as the audit report is studied and the people behind the excess withdrawals are identified. For now, the confirmed facts are the size of the scam, the number of districts, the number of excess withdrawals, and the amount recovered.
