So even though the ISA is supposed to have zero balance at the end of each year, it ends up with a closing balance. This balance increased substantially over the years until it touched a high of Rs 9,180 crore in 1999. This wouldn’t have gone unquestioned if workers had a facility by which they could check their retirement account balances routinely.

At the same time, had the EPFO instituted a simple reconciliation of past accounts and broken down the balance in the ISA, it could have undone the mess. However, to stave off criticism, in 1999, the Central PF Commissioner ordered regional offices to take “all possible steps so that the organisational balance sheet shows better picture for the financial year 1998-99.”

While regional offices reported that members’ accounts had been credited in consonance with ISA reduction targets, a fresh audit conducted in February this year revealed that in at least two states, Maharashtra and West Bengal, members’ accounts weren’t credited although Rs 1,342 crore was debited from the ISA.

The audits were initiated when Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) nominee on the EPFO’s Central Board of Trustees, A D Nagpal raised the issue with labour minister Oscar Fernandes on January 27 that the 1999 exercise was a mere “book entry to avoid criticism from the board and the CAG” and called for a full investigation whether the related interest was actually credited to members’ accounts. HMS general secretary Umraomal Purohit intends to bring this issue to the PM’s notice tomorrow.