| The Textile Commissioner has recently ordered a probe into the matter. The role of P K Laheri, Chief Secretary of Gujarat, who earlier held the coveted post of Director-General of NIFT is also being investigated. |
| Union Textile Minister, Shankersinh Vaghela has confirmed that Laheri is also now under the scanner. |
| According to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report of 2000 civil, the decision of the Textile secretary to deposit the amounts forfeited as penalty for failure to fulfill the export quota of textiles and garments into the public account rather than the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI) and release grants directly from it undermined the Parliamentary Financial Control, and did not afford opportunity for audit by the CAG. |
| The committee constituted by the secretary, Ministry of Textiles had released a total of Rs 35.08 crore for expenditure on various activities up to January 1999. Of this, Rs 29.46 crore was released to Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), Rs 7.50 lakh to Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), Rs 5 lakh to Indian Silk Export Promotion Council (ISEPC) and Rs 5.50 crore to NIFT. |
| The committee released Rs 4.50 crore for the building project and an unusually large amount of Rs 1 crore for fashion shows to the NIFT. This institute is provided grants-in-aid regularly from out of the grant of the Ministry and this arrangement of additional funding had the effect of denial of total picture to the Parliament. |
| "The government have ordered enquiry on some outstanding audit objections since the inception of the institute. |
| "The enquiry was ordered by the textile commissioner but we have not received any copy of the order as yet." Gauri Kumar, director general, NIFT told Business Standard. However she refused comment over the amount involved in the financial irregularities that the institute has been running into. |
| Subodh Kumar, textile commissioner was not available for his comments despite several attempts. At present there are over 109 outstanding audit objections against NIFT. |
| "We have ordered some routine enquiry and NIFT is one of them. I have got nothing against the chief principal secretary of Gujarat and the enquiry is nothing to do with politics as reported in certain sections of media," Shankarsinh Vaghela, Union Minister of Textiles said. |
| According to sources in the ministry, an overview of more important paragraphs included in the CAG report is as under unauthorised approval of the Ministry of Textiles to credit the penalties through AEPC on account of the failure of the exporters to fulfill their export quota of textiles and garments into the public account rather than into the consolidated fund of India and meeting the expenditure directly by debiting the pubic account was against the provisions of Articles 266 and 114 (3) of the Constitution of India. |
| This had the effect of bypassing the jurisdiction of the Parliament, without whose approval no money could have been spent. |
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