NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to promptly audit the accounts of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) from 2018 to 2021 in accordance with the law, while closing the proceedings on a plea filed by a BJP leader.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan was dealing with the petition filed by BJP leader Harish Khurana seeking direction to the CAG to audit the accounts of the DJB whose financial audit has allegedly not been carried out for several years.
“In view of the statement, the writ petition is closed with a direction to the CAG to audit the accounts of DJB as expeditiously as possible in accordance with the law,” the bench also comprising Justice Manmeet P S Arora said.
The audit institution apprised the court that it has received annual accounts statements from the DJB for 2018-19 to 2020-21 and it is in the process of auditing the accounts.
In the plea, Khurana was seeking direction to the DJB to maintain proper accounts and other relevant records and prepare an annual statement of the profit and loss with proper balance sheets from 2015 onwards as prescribed under the law and to direct CAG to conduct an audit of the board.
Opposing the plea, the DJB termed it as “politically motivated” and said it was making every effort to ensure that all final statements and balance sheets were duly prepared and audited in the interest of transparency and compliance with the law.
CAG has also told the high court that there is no negligence on its part as accounts were not provided for auditing.
The plea contended that “it is mandatory to maintain financial accounts and conduct an annual audit of the accounts in order to ascertain effective functioning of the state and local bodies. Maintaining financial accounts and conducting an annual audit of the accounts help to secure accountability, and transparency of the state and local bodies’ functioning towards the general public.”