Calling the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) a monocracy no longer conducive to efficiency,outcome and accountability,the V K Shunglu Committee has criticised it for not auditing the Commonwealth Games projects on schedule. Had it done so,the Shunglu Committee suggests,it would have discouraged corrupt practices in the execution of Games projects. Shunglu himself was CAG between 1996 and 2002. The Shunglu Committee was set up to investigate wasteful expense,funds misuse and mismanagement in organising the Games. It filed six reports and sent its final (seventh) report on March 29,2011,two days before its term expired,only to the Prime Minister. Shunglu wrote that he didnt include this in his committee reports because doing so would have immediately placed the matter in public domain,generated a debate with more fervour than foresight and tended to compromise the standing of these institutions envisaged by the Constitution A Committee of Secretaries has been set up by the PM to look into the failures pointed out by the committee,said sources. The seventh report blames the CAG for not auditing the CWG Organising Committee or government entities like Central Public Works Department and the Delhi Development Authority involved in building Games infrastructure. CAG did not audit the OC even though he was obligated to do so by Section 14 of the Act,declined to do so in 2007 when the government following a Cabinet decision requested him to take up this work,and started audit end-2008 under Section 21 which was inappropriate. It is another matter that the audit,commenced in November-December 2008,remained incomplete to this date. Clearly there has been a failure of audit, says the report. CAG reports from 2004 to 2009 did not display significant materials on the government entities even though by that date all contracting had been completed in the entities,considerable expenditure had been incurred and a great deal of wrongdoing,which has now been elucidated,taken place, it adds. The Shunglu panel also blames the CVC for ignoring information on irregularities in CWG projects available in the media over the last two to three years which provided sufficient grounds to conduct enquiries. It was sadly the case that none of the stories were pursued with any degree of vigour by the CVC. Even the 13 reports submitted by the CVCs Chief Technical Examiner on CWG construction projects showed that the CTE had the opportunity to discover much more than it did. One example the committee quotes is the Barapullah elevated road that could have been examined for quality while the project was ongoing. Unfortunately,this important issue was not looked at by the CTE, it says. The Controller General of Accounts is also blamed by Shunglu for violating accounting principles and accounting codes making it impossible to identify the object of expenditure from the budget papers. The provisions in the Budget were in violation of the principles of accounting classification and it was clear that there was a pattern to these violations. Moreover,the CGA volunteered to conduct am internal audit of the OC following the 2007 Cabinet decision but no such function was performed. When questioned by the committee,the CGA could not give clear reasons why it could not undertake the audit,the committee said. Similar violation of accounting principles in classifying expenditure for CWG was done by the Delhi government. Significant expenditure items have been exhibited under the minor head 800 Other Expenditure, says the committee,adding that considerable work had to be done by it to first construct departmental accounts before evaluating these expenses.
