Kochi : The high court has expressed serious concern over delays in the statutory audit of Guruvayur Devaswom and directed the temple administration to strengthen financial governance and accountability.
Regarding deputation, the court directed the Comptroller and Auditor General to allow Sajit K P to continue as chief finance and accounts officer for one more month, until a substitute is posted.
The court noted that the annual accounts for 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 had not been made available for audit. For the period from 2001-02 to 2021-22, as many as 2,048 audit queries and 16 pending audit reports were flagged. It also noted that annual physical verification of gold and valuables had been conducted only in 2006-07, while the ongoing verification had no specified timeframe. It observed that reconciliation of accounts had been delayed for years, with only the accounts for 2023-24 reconciled. The court stressed that the audit must be completed within the timeframe stipulated under Section 23(1) of the Guruvayur Devaswom Act, 1978.
A bench of Justices V Raja Vijayaraghavan and K V Jayakumar issued the directions in a suo motu case. The bench cautioned the administrator over failure to fully comply with directions to furnish minutes to the audit wing. The court further noted that M/s Logical Steps Interactive Pvt Ltd, Kochi, had been tasked with developing accounting software for the devaswom, sponsored by a managing committee member and a chartered accountant. However, it observed that standalone accounting software would not address the systemic deficiencies and directed the authorities to take steps to identify a vendor for an integrated digital management system covering accounting, assets, properties, procurement, payroll, inventory and temple services, with role-based access and tamper-proof audit trails.