The Kerala High Court has directed the Guruvayur Devaswom managing committee to ensure that the pending audit regarding the financial affairs of the Guruvayur Devaswom Board are completed in accordance with the Guruvayur Devaswom Act 1978. 

The court instructed the Devaswom to submit a schedule for the remittance of the outstanding audit charges of ₹14.72 crore. 

It directed that the login credentials and read-access must be provided to the audit wing within three weeks and that all requisite training must be provided to the audit team in the operation of all digital devices and platforms, along with necessary digital equipment.

All documents generated at every digital transaction, primary records relating to expenditure, certificates of annual physical verification of all assets under the board, decisions by the managing committee, including meeting minutes relating to annual accounts, and details of all the bank accounts maintained by the board were directed to be given to the Audit department. 

The board was also directed to maintain statements of revenue expenditures. A periodic coordination meeting must be held between the Guruvayur Devaswom Administrator or Commissioner and the Audit department to consider the audit observations. The Commissioner should also take steps to clear the pending audit queries. 

The Division Bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan and K.V. Jayakumar issued the directives after reviewing a status report by the Senior Deputy Director, Kerala State Audit department, regarding the completion of pending financial audit of the Guruvayur Devaswom Board.

One of the main grievances raised by the Audit department was that the board had not taken serious and earnest steps to rectify the defects that had been pointed out. It was also stated that for 20 years, from 2001–2002 to 2021–2022, the total number of audit queries was 2,048 and the number of pending audit reports was 16.

Another issue reported was that the annual accounts were submitted for audit only after several years. The Devaswom’s decisions affecting the annual accounts were also not being communicated to the department. The department was unable to undertake a comprehensive verification of the custody and protection of the assets of the Devaswom, since no information was provided on whether annual physical verification was taking place.

It was also reported that the necessary audit login credentials were not provided to the Audit Department to access the online software systems. Essential records, including the cash book and ledgers, were not submitted. However, reports on the Point of Sale (POS) machine transactions were provided. The statutory audit wing was not given any training in the software-based online facilities for vazhipadu collection, POS machines, card machines and kiosks, and E-Hundi for QR code scanning to facilitate cashless transactions till date. 

The board informed the court that in conformity with a previous order, it had engaged ‘Logical Step’, a firm, to undertake the end-to-end computerisation and digitisation of its operations.