MEA probing India's ambassador to Qatar Sanjeev Arora for financial impropriety during US stint

NEW DELHI: An Indian ambassador is under an official probe — a rare event in the foreign service, and even more unusually, the charges are 'lack of integrity', something senior service members are rarely accused of.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has started a probe against Sanjeev Arora, India's ambassador to Qatar, for alleged financial impropriety and 'lack of integrity'. The charges relate to Arora's activities as India's consul general in Houston, Texas, US.

ET has reviewed documents related to the MEA probe. Officials who spoke for this report did not want to be identified. Arora responded to ET's questions by saying he "was not aware of any financial misappropriation" during his stint in Houston.

MEA served a memorandum to Arora on March 22. The memo said Arora, as consul general in Houston, generated "fictitious vouchers... with his (Arora's) approval as the Head of Chancery (HoC)". Officials said the memo is the first step in the inquiry process and that the officer's reply is now being assessed.

MEA's memo also makes the following points against Arora:

1. "Total systemic failure" in the handling of accounts

2. Failure to "exercise supervisory powers and control mechanisms effectively while signing monthly accounts"

3. Disregard of "government accounting rules, instructions and established norms"

4. "Lack of integrity" and "deviation from duty"

Arora, a 1984 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, denied any wrongdoing. "I am not aware of any financial misappropriation at Consulate General of India, Houston, during my tenure as consul general from November 2008 till July 2012," Arora told ET in response to a query on the MEA memo.

Earlier, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had, in one of its reports, observed there were financial irregularities in India's Houston consulate. CAG had admonished MEA for this in its 2014 report. It had also said that an examination of the consulate's accounts showed "fictitious payment vouchers" of about Rs 2.3 crore.

Following this, MEA had sent an internal inquiry team for a thorough check and audit. It was following this detailed process that a probe is now underway, officials told ET.

Fluent in Arabic, Arora started his career in Cairo, followed by Jeddah and has served in the Indian missions in Bonn, Colombo, Prague and Houston.