WHen neHru got a fruit bill from cag

We came across an interesting story in the Delhi Gymkhana Club’s February newsletter. A young Indian Audit and Accounts Service probationer officer, under the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, in the 1960s, was assigned to carry out the audit of the accounts of Teen Murti House, the official residence of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The PM House staff offered the probationer and his colleagues a tour of the beautifully manicured gardens of Teen Murti House, where the probationer suddenly spotted trees laden with a variety of fruit. He tactfully enquired about the disposal of the fruit grown in a public property. The superintendent informed him that Nehru was fond of fruits and relished them for breakfast. The probationer asked who paid for them. Aghast, the superintendent told him sternly that “there can be no question of the PM paying for consuming fruit grown in his own garden”. The probationer carefully counted the number of fruit laden trees, estimated the quantity of fruits grown on each and calculated the loss sustained by the exchequer owing to non-payment of the cost of fruit served for the PM’s breakfast. When he prepared the report, he recommended that the dues for the fruit consumed be recovered from the staff responsible for this lapse at the PM’s House. His stunned superior sent the report to the Deputy CAG, with the words that “the young officer is inexperienced and would be suitably advised to be more careful in future”. The Deputy CAG, equally irritated, endorsed the report to the big boss, the CAG. But the CAG simply noted: “I agree with the probationer’s findings.” The file was forwarded to the PM’s Secretary, an ICS officer then, who sent it to the PM. The file came back from the PM’s desk