Kochi Biennale grant diverted

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Comptroller and Auditor General has found that the organisers of Kochi Muziris Biennale had diverted the government grant for purposes unrelated to the conduct of the event.

It also directed the Tourism Department to recover the money. The scrutiny found that the non-profitable Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) had utilised '38 lakh of Tourism Department’s Rs 9 crore grant to it to spruce up its office in Mumbai.

When this impropriety was pointed out, the department said the expenditure was incurred for renovation and maintenance of KBF’s Mumbai office for the convenience of artists who were part of the event at Kochi.

“The action of KBF justifying the expenditure on renovation and maintenance of its branch office at Mumbai and payment of rent for its Mumbai office was unwarranted because incurring such expenditure from the state budget was irregular,” the report stated.

The CAG report also found irregularities in the conduct of the Biennale inaugural. KBF incurred Rs 36.38 lakh for the inaugural function for which prior permission from the state government was not obtained. Nonetheless, the report described the Biennale as “successful”.

“The arrival of foreign tourists for the period October 2012 to February 2013 had showed an increasing trend and increase in the tourism revenue,” the report said.