Bhubaneswar: Suspected irregularities in the disbursal of marriage assistance under a welfare scheme for construction workers have come under the scanner after an audit detected over 1,900 cases in which marriages were registered before they were solemnised, raising questions about the authenticity of beneficiary claims.A draft audit of PAReSHRAM, the labour and ESI department’s digital platform, and the Nirman Shramik portal of the Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board found significant discrepancies in marriage records used to sanction financial assistance.The audit revealed that in 676 legacy cases recorded before the launch of the portal in 2022, the date of marriage registration preceded the date of marriage. A similar anomaly was detected in 1,257 cases between 2022 and 2025.Under the scheme, the board provides Rs 50,000 assistance for the marriage of an unmarried registered female beneficiary or for the marriage of up to two unmarried daughters of a registered worker aged above 18 years. As per the Orissa Hindu Marriages Registration Rules, 1960, marriages must be registered within 30 days of their solemnisation.The audit observed that weak system controls and inadequate validation mechanisms allowed ineligible beneficiaries to exploit loopholes and obtain assistance in violation of prescribed procedures.It also found instances where benefits were sanctioned without proper verification of marriage certificates. In one case from Khurda district, a worker allegedly secured Rs 50,000 assistance by submitting a fabricated marriage certificate belonging to another person.As a test check in Khariar block of Nuapada district, auditors found marriage certificate issue registers containing blank pages and lacking recipient signatures. Database analysis showed that 586 beneficiaries received marriage assistance worth Rs 2.9 crore between 2020 and 2025 in the block, but details of the corresponding marriage certificates were not available.The audit concluded that deficiencies in system design and record verification compromised the integrity of the scheme and made it difficult to establish the genuineness of claims. A govt officer said the matter is under investigation.