‘Rs 28 crore spent on ads outside Delhi’

STATING THAT Rs 28.71 crore of the total expenditure of Rs 33.40 crore was incurred on releasing advertisements outside Delhi, the CAG slammed the Delhi government for violating Supreme Court guidelines on issuing advertisements.

“It was found that over 85 per cent of expenditure was incurred on one specific publicity campaign pertaining to ads released outside Delhi,” the report said.

The report also pulled up the government for putting out nonverifiable content in advertisements. Referring to an advertisement on saving Rs 350 crore on three bridges, the report said that while one bridge was completed in January 2016, minor work was carried out on the other two. The projected savings were based on assessment and not on actual expenditure, the report said.

In its defense, the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) said the AAP government is the “nomenclature used for Delhi government by the public”. On ads featuring the Centre, the directorate said it was a political issue between two legally constituted governments that was put before the public.

The audit also slammed AAP for establishing Shabdarth — an agency it set up to handle its publicity and ad campaigns. The report said it did not submit bills of newspapers and released advertisements without assessing the cost involved.

Theauditalsofoundimproper maintenance of registers for outdoor campaigns and audio visual media. Scrutiny of the registers revealed that apart from expenditure of Rs 81.23 crore by the DIP, Rs 20.23 crore was paid in 201617 for advertisements released during 2015-16 — bringing the total expenditure to Rs 101.46 crore.