CAG pulls up govt, CM blames it on politics
AD SPEND Delhi govt spent ₹29 crore in advertisements outside Delhi, auditor says it was beyond govt’s responsibility
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has pulled up the Arvind Kejriwal government for spending ₹29 crore on advertisements outside Delhi, which it said was “beyond its responsibility”.
The government also received flak for issuing ads worth ₹24 crore that were in violation of “financial propriety and Supreme Court regulations”.
The central auditor’s report on social sector for the financial year 2015-16 was tabled in the Delhi assembly on Friday.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came back to power in Delhi in February 2015. It presented its first full-fledged budget for the financial year 2015-16, allocating ₹522 crore to the department of publicity and information.
Though the ad budget was brought down to ₹100 crore in the revised estimates, the cost of ads released during 2015-16 may go beyond ₹114.21 crore.
In the report, the CAG pulled up the Kejriwal government for using the name and symbol of the AAP in official ads and referring to the government as ‘Kejriwal sarkar’ and “Aam Aadmi Party Sarkar”. This, the CAG said, was against SC guidelines that say there should be “political neutrality” in government ads and they shouldn’t glorify politicians.
The CAG said the ads on women’s safety attempted to project the Centre and the Delhi Police in a negative light, again violating the guidelines.
“On test check of records, audit observed that expenditure of ₹24.29 crore was incurred on ads and publicity campaigns that were not in conformity with the generally accepted principles of financial propriety or the guidelines on content regulation approved by the SC,” it said.
“Over 85% expenditure of ₹33.40 crore incurred in one publicity campaign pertained to ads released outside Delhi,” it added.
In its report, the auditor highlighted instances of “non-verifiable content in ads”. One of them is related to claims of saving ₹347 crore in construction of three bridges and the second on construction of dispensary at ₹20 lakh as compared to ₹5 crore by Ads worth 429 crore released outside Delhi was "beyond its responsibility” Ads worth 424 crore were in violation of “financial propriety and Supreme Court regulations”
Violations of guidelines in maintaining political neutrality in government advertisements
No prior exercise to identify target audience
Non-verifiable content in ads claiming money saved in construction of three bridges, dispensary Implementation suffered due to poor planning, continuing vacancies, delay in release of funds
Enrollment in Class 1 in government and aided schools fell by 23% from 2,04,884 in 2010-11 to 1,56,911 in 2015-16
418.29 crore sanctioned during 2015-16 for the construction of additional rooms and toilets remained unutilised
Due to non-creation of adequate infrastructure the schools have adverse student classroom ratio
8,579 posts (22%) of teachers and librarians vacant in Delhi government school as of July 2016.
SCERT was allotted 412.46 crore for conducting training. Only 44.75 crore was utilised the previous governments.
“Audit requested the public works department for details of the project and expenditure incurred. However, no details were provided… The expenditure projected was only an ‘assessment’ and was not the actual expenditure incurred. Audit observed two of the three bridges were yet to be completed though they had been open to traffic ,” the report said. The auditor observed anomalies in the establishment of Shabdarth, a registered society established under the Department of Information and Publicity. The auditor said that the objective with which the organisation was set up, to rationalise expenditure on ads, was not achieved. Only 30% health facilities reported dengue data, making surveillance ineffective
MCDs engaged unskilled people for checking domestic mosquito breeding The methods or the chemical formulations used for treating 86% houses are not prescribed or recommended by national agencies Fogging, which was routinely carried out, is effective only in emergency situations In 2015, of the 409 dengue deaths reported by hospitals, only 60 were confirmed by the death review committee
Delhi government spent 410 crore on awareness campaigns that started after the outbreak of dengue Objective to restore architectural and heritage character while easing traffic and pedestrian movement was not achieved Scope of the project drastically reduced from 4615.20 crore to 4477.02 crore Facilities like subways, escalators, underground parking space, etc not completed
The CAG report pointed out that the e-rickshaw scheme launched by the
Delhi government in March 2015 failed to take off
The Kejriwal led government had decided to provide financial assistance for purchase of e-rickshaws under which it was expected to finance 2,000 e-rickshaws by providing up to 80% of the cost of new e-rickshaw at rate of interest of 13% per annum
The corporation received 550 applications up to September 2015 of which 304 applications were sanctioned. It disbursed 31.87 crore till March 31, 2016, in 226 cases