Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

Noida not providing records, CAG team complains to CEO

- Vinod Rajput vinod.rajput@htlive.com ▪

NOIDA: In a strongly worded communicat­ion to the chief executive officer of the Noida authority, the team of comptrolle­r and auditor general (CAG) has expressed their displeasur­e over the non-cooperatio­n of several department­s in providing them records for the purpose of audit.

The CAG team is camping in Noida and is auditing files of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authoritie­s to establish if irregulari­ties have taken place since 2005.

The senior audit officer, in his letter to the CEO, stated, “It is very disappoint­ing to inform you that no progress has been made in the status as on the date of meeting (June 21, 2018) despite your orders. Although details regarding manpower outsourcin­g has been submitted by electricit­y and maintenanc­e wing, no replies of audit observatio­ns issued has been received except for two (one from group housing and one from industrial).”

The department­s such as store purchase, land wing, plot section, institutio­nal and commercial sections, among others, have not provided the required details for the audit.

“We have no way but to report the matter to our headquarte­rs for onward communicat­ion to the ACS, IIDD (additional chief secretary, industrial infrastruc­ture developmen­t department, government of UP) as our work is suffering due to incomplete submission of records. Please issue instructio­ns for strict compliance of your orders so that audit work can go smoothly,” the letter read.

The CAG’s Lucknow office, on May 21, had directed the Noida authority to provide the required audit observatio­n details since 2005-06 by June 28 for audit purposes to the team camping in Noida. The audit observatio­n means the reports of the local team that audits the accounts each year and these observatio­ns are kept in records. The CAG needs these records for their audit.

On November 21, 2017, the CAG had started the audit in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Developmen­t Authority (Yeida). However, the CAG team has failed to receive the cooperatio­n of the Noida authority although they hadn’t faced such problems with Greater Noida authority and Yeida.

Alok Tandon, chief executive officer of the Noida authority, said, “The CAG audit is being done from the year 2005-06 onwards. The informatio­n that is being sought by the audit team in many cases dates to a period before that. It takes time to locate old records and provide replies.”

THE CAG TEAM IS CAMPING IN NOIDA AND IS AUDITING FILES OF NOIDA, GREATER NOIDA AND YAMUNA EWAY AUTHORITIE­S

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