Bernard Marak alleges massive fund misuse in Meghalaya’s ADCs

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaAugust 27, 2025

BJP Tura MDC Bernard N. Marak on Wednesday alleged large-scale misappropriation and misutilisation of funds by political committees, particularly executive committees, in the three autonomous district councils (ADCs) of Meghalaya.

In a statement, Marak expressed concern over the delay in submitting Utilisation Certificates (UCs), which he said has resulted in pending releases of more than Rs 500 crore to the ADCs.

He pointed out that between 2021 and 2026, the Finance Commission of India allocated over Rs 8,000 crore to the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC), Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) under the 15th Finance Commission.

“But unfortunately, there has been massive misappropriation and misutilisation of funds in the ADCs by political committees, especially by executive committees,” he alleged.

Marak further claimed that the special assistance grant of Rs 100.71 crore, sanctioned after the signing of the Garo Accord in 2014, was “looted” in GHADC.

“Some members took out huge amounts in sacks from the Council Treasury. Now, the employees suffer with a salary backlog of 43 months mainly because these funds were not properly invested in revenue-generating projects,” he said, adding that while all three ADCs benefited from the Accord, GHADC executive committees misused funds more than the others.

He also stated that such misappropriation violated Para 7.6 of the Accord, which assured proper utilisation of funds and avoidance of misuse of central assistance.

“Most of the projects listed under the Rs 100.71 crore are either under trial in court for corruption, chargesheeted, left half-constructed, or have simply disappeared from the project site. The Accord has been grossly violated, and to escape accountability, the mandatory six-monthly meeting of the Monitoring Committee was not held after Covid-19. So, no one can say there has not been misappropriation of central funds,” he added.