Madhya Pradesh's 'biggest' salary scam: 50k 'ghost' staff and Rs 230 crore fraud

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Nearly 50,000 government employees in Madhya Pradesh haven't received their salaries for over six months, raising concerns of a possible Rs 230 crore fraud, reported NDTV. It may be one of the biggest salary scams in the state as not even a single genuine complaint has been registered yet.

According to NDTV citing documents it has access to, these employees exist in only official documents and their salaries have not been processed for over six months — raising suspicions of corruption and ghost employment.

The issue came to light when a letter dated May 23 was sent by the Commissioner of Treasury and Accounts (CTA) to all Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) to investigate the anomaly, NDTV reported.

"The data of Regular / Non-Regular employees under IFMIS, whose salaries have not been drawn since December 2024, is enclosed... although employee codes exist, their verification is incomplete in IFMIS, and the Exit process hasn't been done either," the letter obtained by the NDTV read.

Following the letter, over 6,000 DDOs were ordered to verify the government employees’ authenticity. As per the report, the DDOs have been asked to explain the potential Rs 230 crore scam in 15 days and the timeline will be over on Friday.

"We conduct data analysis regularly and this discrepancy was observed. I further clarify unambiguously that it’s not that salary is being drawn against these accounts. This inquiry tries to curb the risk of probable embezzlement which may occur," Commissioner of Treasury and Accounts Bhaskar Lakshkar was quoted by NDTV.

'Whatever happens, will be according to rules': Finance Minister Devda
"50,000 salaries not drawn for months. Why?" Mr Devda appeared visibly uncomfortable and said, "Well... whatever process is followed, it is done according to rules," Madhya Pradesh's Finance Minister Jagdish Devda was quoted by NDTV.