CAG pulled up the Delhi government for information related to CWG
October, 26th 2010
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has pulled up the Delhi government for trying to side step its request for information related to all Commonwealth Games (CWG) projects.
The CAG has told the Sheila Dikshit government to provide information on all the projects without filtering any information.
The CAG had earlier this month asked the Delhi government for a list of 76 projects related to the CWG and city infrastructure. On October 22, the Delhi government replied that only 25 of the 76 projects were directly related to the Games.
The state government said it may not be able to provide records of 51 infrastructure projects in the stipulated period of three months during which the CAG is supposed to complete its probe.
An enraged CAG wrote back to the Delhi government, saying no exceptions could be made. It asked for records of every project as required by the audit parties expeditiously.
Among the things the CAG audit will look into is the criteria for appointment of consultants and scope of consultancy. It will also check the functioning of the consultants and the payments made to them. Cost overruns and reasons for that too would be under the scanner.
But the Delhi government has drawn up a whittled-down version of its CWG expenditure. Sources said the government feels many dual use projects - for example, roads and flyovers not necessarily related to the Games - which had so far been connected to the CWG could be delinked.
Sources said this includes delinking from CWG expenditure the flyover projects at Mukarba Chowk, Mongolpuri, Azadpur and Munirka as well as the underpass at Bhera Enclave. The other expenses that the state government wants delinked are that of streetlighting and the 3,000 low-floor buses introduced by the Delhi Transport Corporation.