The draft audit report titled ‘Implementation of PAReSHRAM and Nirman Shramik Portal in the State’ – slated for inclusion in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s 2024‑25 audit – details how the scheme’s digital portal was exploited through falsified marriage records.
Analysis of the board’s legacy database revealed 676 marriage certificates with registration dates that pre‑dated the actual marriage, and a further 126 such anomalies were identified in five sampled districts.
After the Nirman Shramik Portal went live, auditors found 1,257 additional cases across Odisha and 333 in the same sampled districts where the registration dates preceded the marriage, leading to disbursements totalling ₹6.29 crore.
The report attributes the abuse to system‑design flaws and a lack of validation checks, which allowed ineligible individuals to bypass marriage‑registration protocols and claim benefits meant for unmarried female beneficiaries or two unmarried daughters of a registered construction worker.
Further irregularities were noted at the Block Development Office in Khariar, where marriage‑benefit registers were kept with blank pages and without recipient signatures. The audit recorded 586 benefits disbursed there, amounting to ₹2.90 crore for the 2020‑25 period, yet no details of the corresponding certificates were available.
The Nirman Shramik scheme, administered by the welfare board that had accumulated over ₹4,000 crore by 2024, provides a one‑time ₹50,000 aid for eligible marriages. The audit’s findings raise concerns about the scheme’s financial integrity and the need for tighter controls.
The revelations follow a separate report by The Hindu that highlighted 2,487 construction workers who had been declared dead but whose nominees continued to receive death assistance while the workers themselves still drew subsidised foodgrain under the National and State Food Security Schemes.