The audit scrutiny was conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India into the repatriation registrations made with Mumbai RPO.
Pune-based activist Vihar Durve had filed an RTI query with the Mumbai RPO in September last year, seeking status of repatriation charges recovered in connection with repatriation cases filed with it from 1980 to 2011 period.
The reply furnished by the RPO office revealed that out of 414 repatriation cases received from various Embassies, it recovered repatriation charges only in 126 cases while Rs 28.86 lakhs is still pending from the defaulters.
The copy received showed that from 1979-80 to 2010-11, a total of Rs 74.45 lakh were given to repatriates who did not have enough means to return. Their homecoming was facilitated with a promise that they will return the aid (money) after their arrival in the country.
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However, only Rs 45.59 lakh Rs were recovered while Rs 28.86 lakh is still lying unrecovered, it showed.
According to Passport Manual, 2001, a repatriate should invariably be asked for revocation of his/her passport on the ground that a person has become destitute and is no longer in a position to maintain himself in abroad.
A senior Mumbai RPO officer, on the issue, said, "truly speaking, this money was spent on countrymen as minimal financial assistance to help those needy people who lost everything. It was a small kind gesture to serve our people by our embassies and missionaries abroad."
"But as and when, we trace the defaulter while he/she applies for fresh issuance of passport, we recover the money," he added.
He further said in order to deal with such cases, a new system - Prior Approval Category (PAC) - was introduced in 1993, which feeds the name of repatriated person in the database.