Urban News

Business Standard  17.10.2010

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will start the audit work of Commonwealth Games (CWG) Village here from October 28 to probe allegations of financial irregularities.

Official sources said the CAG will also audit the accounts of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the expenditure incurred for building residential complexes inside the Village in addition to the alleged undue favours given to Emaar MGF, a leading real estate group, for its construction.

Emaar MGF did not respond to an email query sent by PTI.

The audit process by CAG teams began in the middle of August. However, later it was halted between September 24 and October 14 in view of the Games.

The audit resumed this Friday and memos have been issued to different parties including Delhi government and others.

"At least 10 teams would conduct the audit. Each team has at least three supervisory officials. Three teams have already been pressed into service for the audit of Central Public Works Department (CPWD), DDA, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), Public Works Department (PWD), Organising Committee (OC), Delhi government etc," a senior CAG official said.

According to the auditing agency, huge financial irregularities worth crores of rupees have been noticed in various contracts by civic and construction departments.

"CPWD has paid additional amount to a contractor (with regard to construction at S P Mukherjee Swimming Pool) despite the work covered in the original contract. As per preliminary investigations, the difference is of about Rs 200 crore," the official said.

CAG has found service tax underpayments related issues and inflated tender estimates with regards to the swimming pool.

CAG will submit its report in the Parliament session next month.

"We have started auditing the SPM Swimming Pool (built by CPWD which functions under Urban Development Ministry) and the CRPF Kadarpur Shooting Range in Gurgaon," he said.

A team will also be inspecting Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and Indira Gandhi Stadium soon. "Then we would be auditing the Siri Fort Stadium and Yamuna Sport Complex, constructed by the DDA, and the Talkatora Indoor Stadium which comes under NDMC," the CAG official said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also formed a committee under the chairmanship of former CAG V K Shungloo to probe and submit report within three months on all Games-related financial and construction projects.

The Hindu  07.10.2010

Audit reveals Rs. 3,500-cr scam in BBMP

Staff Reporter

Misuse of work code:BBMP engineers also allegedly hoodwinked the civic authority by issuing code for works along the metro rail project.

Bangalore: An audit of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's (BBMP) finances during 2008-09 and 2009-10 fiscals has opened a Pandora's box with the revelation of a Rs. 3,500-crore scam.

According to sources, the initial audit has revealed that work code was sanctioned to infrastructure works worth Rs. 1,500 crore in 2008-09, which is said to be over and above the budgetary allocations. Similarly, in 2009-10, code was sanctioned for works worth Rs. 2,000 crore. A proper auditing into the financial allocations for the infrastructure projects in the budget and the work code issued for the same will only open a can of worms for the BBMP.

Huge misappropriation

A source said that the auditing clearly revealed that huge sums have been misappropriated. “Even the BBMP Commissioner does not have power to approve excess work code. However, the Commissioners who served the BBMP during 2008-09 and 2009-10 (S. Subramanya and Bharatlal Meena) misused their power and approved excess work codes. The officials probably buckled under pressure from MLAs,” they alleged. The BBMP engineers also allegedly hoodwinked the civic authority by issuing code for works along the metro rail project.

“Since the project involves lot of digging work, the engineers have made a submission that large number of works under the extra work code has been taken up at the metro alignment,” the source said.

The auditing also exposed that duplicate work codes and same work code numbers have been issued for different works, pointing to a nexus between officials and contractors. Excess work codes were issued at Malleswaram, R.R. Nagar, Dasarahalli, Yelahanka, Bommanahalli, K.R. Puram, Govindarajanagar, Gandhinagar and Shanthinagar Assembly constituencies.

Damage control

Meanwhile, Commissioner Siddaiah has formed a vigilance squad comprising the Engineer-in-Chief, Technical Adviser and Technical and Vigilance Coordinating Committee to look into the issue.

To find out the exact quantum of funds misappropriated, a circular has been issued directing all executive engineers to provide details under 13 different parameters related to the work code.

As a fallout of this and to avoid misuse of the work code, the BBMP has planned to implement the system followed by the Public Works Department. Under that system, works will have a job number and information on the nature of work, location (zone and ward) and contractors' details will be available.