 "Large-scale irregularities in Delhi govt departments: CAG")
Glaring financial discrepancies, irregularities and wasteful expenditure in various departments and undertakings of the Delhi government resulted in losses amounting to thousands of crores, apex auditor comptroller and auditor general (CAG) has observed in reports tabled in the Delhi Assembly on Monday.
The CAG also flagged irregularities to the tune of about Rs 160 crore, including loss of revenue and under-assessment of taxes, in various revenue sector departments in the financial year 2014-15.
The current Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, led by Arvind Kejriwal, was in power in the state only for one-and-half month duration of the period under the CAG review as it assumed office in February 2015.
| RECEIVING FLAK |
|
The Delhi Transport Corporation suffered a staggering loss of Rs 5,022 crore on operations during 2010-15, the CAG observed in its performance audit report and added that it could not procure a single bus despite availability of funds.
In a severe indictment of the health department, it said that hospitals under the Delhi government procured items and consumables without assessing the actual requirement, which lay unused in stock for prolonged periods resulting in the blocking of Rs 3.16 crore.
It added that in spite of incurring an expenditure of Rs 37.82 lakh on installation of water harvesting systems, seven Delhi government hospitals failed to avail rebate of 15 per cent on their water bills, resulting in excess payment of Rs 2.76 crore to Delhi Jal Board during the same period.
The portion dealing with power bodies under the state government held that Indraprastha Power Generation Company ’s failure to avail MAT (Minimum Alternate Tax) credit, while computing self-assessment tax resulted in a blockade of funds of Rs 8.1 crore and consequent interest burden of Rs 0.95 crore.
Similarly, Delhi Power Company incurred an additional liability of Rs 0.46 crore on account of interest due to late deposit of MAT of Rs 3.54 crore, it said.
Delhi Transco’s delay in payment of licence fee resulted in creation of avoidable liability of Rs 3.2 crore on account of interest, the report added.
“Failure in assessing and discharging advance tax liability resulted in avoidable expenditure of Rs 8.62 crore on account of interest,” it said.
On implementation of the projects by the Delhi Jal Board, the report said the capacity utilisation of sewage treatment plants (STPs) was only 66 per cent due to lack of adequate conveyance systems to bring sewage from command areas to the STPs.
“Water Treatment Plants and allied infrastructure for 150 Million of Gallons Per Day (MGD) were developed at Dwarka, Bawana and Okhla without ensuring availability of raw water... Penalty withheld for delay in execution of 12 works by contractors was short by Rs 104.20 crore.
“A contractor was allowed to change the technology from confined trench to micro-tunnelling method for laying sewer line that resulted in avoidable expenditure of Rs 15.33 crore,” it said.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Fire Services is grappling with an overall manpower shortage of 42 per cent and still requires 12 more fire stations as against its sanctioned target of 70 as the force was “not adequately equipped” with fire fighting vehicles and equipment, the report pointed out.
The laxity on the part of the 'Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board' in identifying and registering construction workers resulted in cess funds of Rs 1,691 crore lying idle, depriving the workers of intended benefits, the report said.
The part on compliance audit, dealing with the preparedness for implementation of the National Food Security Act, 2013, said there was delay in identification of beneficiaries and that the beneficiaries list included ineligible and unverified persons.
"GPS devices were not installed for monitoring the movement of vehicles used for transporting food grains. Database under End-to-End Computerization of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) was incomplete," it said.
The same portion mentioned "irregular expenditure" of Rs 1.64 crore in violation of conditions of the contract by the Public Works Department and "unfruitful expenditure" of Rs 95.15 lakh due to its failure to carry out a proper feasibility study before awarding a work.
An "inadmissible" payment of Rs 8.54 crore was pointed out by the CAG report involving work of resurfacing of various roads while the report also mentioned an "avoidable" extra expenditure of Rs 1.71 crore due to "injudicious" decision of the department.
"Observation Homes (OHs) in Delhi lacked adequate infrastructure. Rs 2.81 crore incurred on construction of a new building was rendered unfruitful, as it was not conducive for juveniles.
"Timely grants were not released to NGOs, creating problems relating to supply of items of clothing, bedding, medicines and payment of salary to staff," it further said.
