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SGPC goes tortoise in nine months, hare in last three

S P Singh

Chandigarh:  

Cash-rich SGPC, the premier forum administering hundreds of Sikh gurdwaras, manages its money running into crores in a rather peculiar way: For the first nine months, little happens. And then in a feverish burst, expenditure graphs rocket in the last three months.  

As SGPC president Kirpal Singh Badungar prepares to present his second annual budget on March 29, pegged at over Rs 206 crore, it will be under four different heads -- SGPC general board, Schools and Colleges, Dharam Parchar Committee and SGPC-administered Gurdwaras. But those who seriously peruse the fiscal riddle will find that it is basically divided into a 9/3 line.    

So, if the SGPC general board fund spent Rs 2.78 lakh on office stationery in the first nine months, expenditure on the same was Rs 4.21 lakh in the last quarter of the year.  

While it is possible that many expenses are actually pushed back into the last quarter, like buying office furniture, darian and galiche (mats and carpets) etc, what beats common sense is expenditure pattern on items like electricity. 

Only Rs 31,422 were spent on electricity bills in the first nine months, the last three accounted for Rs 3,28,578! Even a modern gizmo like computer couldn't escape the trend as Rs 48,550 were spent under the head `Computer' in 9 months, compared to Rs 1.51 lakh in the last quarter. Now what was the computer suddenly doing in the last three months? Producing higher Pentium versions during stand-by time? 

Among few things reflecting a more sensible pattern are salaries and rentals.  

Things are no different with Dharam Parchar Committee. Telephone and illuminations (clubbed together for no explicable reason) cost Rs 38,639 in first 9 months; bill for last three months was Rs 1.36 lakh. Amount spent by DPC on office goods in last three months was four times that spent in first nine.  

Money management at temporal seats -- Sikh Takhts -- leaves much to be desired, said many insiders closely associated with the budget making. Take the case of Takht Kesgarh at Anandpur Sahib. Even the expenditure on much-coveted êisiropaêr in first nine months was Rs 6.98 lakh, in last three months it zoomed to Rs 13 lakh plus!  

Much more stark picture emerged from perusal of expenditure pattern of specific vehicles of Takht Kesgarh. The car used by the Takht Jathedar (PB 12 F 1955) cost Rs 1.10 lakh in first nine months, and Rs 89,825 in the last three. Obviously, it was travelling too far at the fag end of the fiscal year, just as Swaraj vehicle PB 12-D-9828 ran up Rs 1.13 lakh expense in three months. Amount spent in first nine months was Rs 86,645.    

Tata Sumo PB-12F-3435 expenses in first nine months were Rs 46,708, in last three Rs 53,296.    

But the perplexing questions raised by such shoddy budget-making notwithstanding, sources in the Akali Dal (Badal) said SGPC chief Badungar would have little difficulty in getting the general house stamp on his fiscal miracles, thanks to the brute majority.    

While Badungar remained unavailable, senior SGPC officials confirmed the strange figures but declined comment.■               

September 9, 2000

See Also:
Logic SGPC style

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