NEW DELHI: Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V K Saxena on Monday wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the “inordinate delay” in tabling the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) reports for four consecutive years and asked him to refrain from such practices that could result in losses to the exchequer, official sources close to L-G’s office said.
Saxena, last week flagged the issue of CAG reports of Delhi government’s finances not being tabled in the Delhi Assembly from 2017 to 2021 until after his intervention on July 5. According to the officials, Saxena said that it was not clear if tabling all audit reports in the assembly in one go would give enough opportunity for discussion and deliberations on the CAG’s observations, which were “serious in nature” and called for in-depth introspection by all.
“It is observed that many irregularities pointed out in the CAG reports are of serious nature requiring urgent attention. Inordinate delay in laying the audit reports not only delayed timely corrective action but also indirectly resulted in perpetuating stated deficiencies, thus defeating the purpose of the audit in terms of ensuring efficiency and accountability,” the letter read.
“I will once again urge you to ensure that in future, CAG reports are laid in time before the Legislative Assembly and necessary action on the observations is taken in a time-bound manner to avoid wastage and misuse of public money,”
Saxena said. Saxena pointed out that there were several “irregularities” in development works in unauthorised colonies and delay in execution of projects, among others.