Gurgaon: The mandatory signature or approval of a mayor on bills, vouchers or payment files before funds can be released may soon be passé. In a clarification on municipal financial procedures, Haryana directorate of urban local bodies (ULB) has said that there is no provision under Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, or Haryana Municipal Account Code, 2025, mandating the mayor’s signature or approval on bills.While no such practice is being followed in MCG, MCM councillors had recently raised the issue alleging that the mayor’s signature was being mandatorily used for approval of bills in the corporation for the last one year. Following this allegation, the MCM commissioner in July wrote to the ULB department seeking “guidance on the requirement of the mayor’s signatures on bills and vouchers before payment”.The ULB department recently wrote to MCM commissioner Pradeep Singh clarifying that the mayor’s signature is not mandated. The state govt — the ULB directorate in this case — has ordered the municipal corporation to act accordingly, emphasising that payments should be handled by the authority empowered to do so under the applicable financial and administrative framework. Despite repeated attempts, TOI failed to elicit comments from mayor Inderjeet Kaur Yadav and the MCM commissioner.“It was in one of the house meetings that it was decided that the satisfaction letters of the mayor along with senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor will be required for the approvals of development works. However, it was falsely interpreted as making the mayor’s signature mandatory for approval of bills, a practice that was followed for almost a year till this ULB letter arrived,” said a councillor, requesting anonymity.The letter, recently sent by the ULB department to the MCM commissioner, said, “It is intimated that there is no provision under the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994 and Haryana Municipal Account Code, 2025 which mandates obtaining the signatures/approval of the mayor on bills, vouchers or payment files prior to release of payments. The payments are required to be processed and released by the competent authority in accordance with the delegation of financial powers, administrative approvals and financial procedures prescribed under the applicable Act/Rules, instructions and orders. Therefore, it is requested to take action accordingly.”MCM’s recent Rs 390-crore approvals have raised serious questions over transparency and financial accountability after the finance and contracts committee (F&CC) recently cleared the list of projects without holding a meeting to discuss them. The committee did not convene to deliberate on the proposed development works.Instead, the list was circulated among its members and their signatures obtained, according to members of the committee. The development works were announced by the mayor recently, with projects spanning sports infrastructure, community facilities, sewage treatment plants, pond redevelopment and other civic amenities.The absence of a committee meeting raises questions about how projects to the tune of Rs 390 crore were examined, prioritised and approved. According to section 25 of the Haryana Municipal Corporation Business Bye-laws, 2009, monthly meetings of the F&CC should take place for approvals of the development works or purchases and, in cases of exigency, these meetings can be held twice a month.
