All pay and no work: 46 Muzaffarpur schools siphon Rs 70 crore under guise of repairs

Payment without actual work, multiple bills raised against the same job, district education officer (DEO) being bypassed for sanction of payments in over 700 instances, and the DEO office itself failing to produce records — these are some of the key findings from the Bihar government’s internal report presented earlier this year after scrutinising development works across 46 schools in Muzaffarpur between 2023 and 2026.

The schools under question allegedly withdrew a cumulative sum of Rs 70 crore by raising fake bills, or multiple bills for the same work. Even as a district administration-appointed three-member investigative committee conclusively reported the fraud and the district administration flagged the matter to the education department this June, no action has been taken yet.

The matter, however, was brought to the attention of CM Samrat Choudhary earlier this month through the Sahyog portal where a Muzaffarpur resident, Amrendra Kumar, sought follow-up action on the alleged large-scale fraud committed in the name of buying bench-desks and submersible pumps, repairing school buildings, and whitewashing.

The Muzaffarpur district magistrate had set up the three-member committee in February this year after alleged financial irregularities, large-scale corruption, and procedural violations were flagged by Manoj Kumar Sahni, former Mukhiya of Loma Panchayat in Gaighat.

The complainant had submitted a list of 46 schools across Gaighat and Minapur blocks, detailing 136 vouchers linked to works such as repairs, boundary wall construction, painting, and maintenance. Here are some of the key findings of the internal committee: Multiple bills: The investigation revealed multiple instances where the same school had bills drawn four to five times through agencies for the same work.

A close analysis of the vouchers showed identical financial amounts across different schools, pointing toward the use of standard model estimates without conducting actual site inspections or preparing localised measurement books (M-books), the inspection committee report said.

Violation of guidelines: The inspection committee also found gross violations of guidelines issued by the Additional Chief Secretary of the Education Department. According to guidelines, no estimate can be prepared or tender invited without a prior physical site inspection by engineers under the District Engineering Cell.

According to the guidelines, works up to Rs 5 lakh require administrative approval from the headmaster, who must collect quotations from at least three local contractors and award the work to the lowest bidding agency. Works between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 15 lakh require administrative approval from the DEO and technical sanction from the Assistant Manager (Technical).

But the inspection committee said field verifications and inquiries with headmasters revealed that school heads were completely unaware of these guidelines because the District Education Office failed to circulate them. Headmasters possessed no files, records, administrative approvals, or quotation documents for works executed, it said.

“No administrative approvals for works exceeding Rs 5 lakh were ever issued by the DEO; instead, projects appeared to have been artificially split to stay under Rs 5 lakh,” the inspection committee report added. Fresh painting and old bills: While payments for these projects were shown as cleared prior to March 31, 2025, physical inspections revealed that painting work and boundary wall construction in several schools (such as Upgraded Middle School Dhubouli, Primary School Dhubouli East, Middle School Baghakhal) had actually been initiated or hastily executed recently in February 2026, often right after the public grievance was filed, the report stated.

At schools like Upgraded Middle School, Loma, and Middle School, Choraniya, boundary walls were found under construction or recently rebuilt in February 2026, despite being billed under 2023-24 schemes. Missing records and resistance from the DEO office: Despite repeated reminders and formal letters dispatched by the Additional Collector (Departmental Inquiry) on multiple dates (February 26, March 7, March 16, April 1, and April 24, 2026), the DEO failed to submit mandatory files, work orders, M-books, and payment records, the report said.

When committee members physically visited the DEO office on April 6, staff and engineers claimed files were “being searched,” making it impossible to verify whether payments were made before work execution. Muzaffarpur DEO Arvind Kumar Sinha told The Indian Express: “The matter pertains to tenure of my predecessor.

However, the three-member inspection committee did seek my help in certain matters, and I have provided them relevant documents. I had also accompanied the team during the inspection to one school under question. But I am not aware of action being taken in the matter.” Bypassing protocols: The complaint highlighted that approximately 700 case files (sanchikas) regarding completed works were forwarded to the Bihar State Educational Infrastructure Development Corporation (BSEIDC), Patna, for payment without the knowledge of the DEO or the recommendation of the RDE (Regional Deputy Director).

The committee observed that the creation of uniform measurements and identical bill amounts across diverse schools violates transparency norms and indicates table-work by engineering staff. With serious allegations involving state-level entities, the committee noted that as these officials fall outside its local jurisdictional purview, these agencies should be investigated by a specialised anti-corruption agency.

Due to “the active withholding of files by the DEO office” and the heavy financial implications surrounding civil work execution, the committee formally recommended a special financial audit of the entire episode.