Appointing chief custodian of goods or items

संनिधात - is the director of stores. cANakya starts his 23rd topic of artha SAstra with the first officer to be appointed who looks after the valuable items.

saMnidhAta should establish:
1. a kOSa gRha (underground safe locker for storing valuables)
2. paNya gRha (A place where the trading items are stored)
3. kOshTAgara (a place where agricultural produce can be stored)
4. kupya gRha (A place where produce from forest can be stored)
5. AyudhAgAram (A place where the weapons can be stored with bunkers) and
6. a bandhanAgAram (A jail where people can be confined!)

There is a good description and guidelines for building each of the above places is given. kOSa gRha should have a secret underground chamber. Underground bunkers should be accessible from the AyudhAgAram. cANakya gives a tip here regarding the secret constructions. Those who are sentenced with a death penalty due to any crime can be utilized as labourers of secret constructions. After the construction, the punishment is given thereby the secret paths will not be revealed to anyone else by the labourers.

Jail should be different for those who have been sentenced for civil crimes and for those who were jailed from war (captured soldiers and other military officers committed crimes) Also, the jail should be different for male and female inmates.

Each of the item which gets into these different storage of King should be verified for its purity. All the gem stones are certified by a gemologist, gold and silver are certified by a qualified gold smith. All the agriculture produce is cleaned, graded and stored in proper method. Anyone trying to bring in fake things should be punished accordingly.

बाह्यमभ्यन्तरंचायं विद्याद्वर्षशतादपि ।
यथा पृष्ठो न सज्जेत व्ययशेषम् च दर्शयेत् ॥

The account of the items deposited into these different stores from within the kingdom as well as arrived from outside of the kingdom should be maintained by the saMnidhAta and he should be able to reconcile it even for past 100 years!

This is something like the modern "Program Management Office" and the chief PMO should know where everything is!!