Dismayed over several instances of misconduct in the ministry, CAG has advised the concerned officers to implement strict monitoring practices in terms of execution of works related to the nation’s security and to save the national exchequer of unnecessary expenses.
It was learnt that the audit agency has found instances of violation of contractual terms and disregard for instructions. ‘It (the ministry) has failed to follow the contractual provision for availing of concessional duties that resulted in avoidable payment of Rs 69.40 crore on account of Income Tax,’ the report states.
Even the procurement of coffee was made in deviation of the prescribed procedure which denied a level playing field to the prospective vendors, resulting in an avoidable expenditure of Rs 53 lakh.
In the context of transportation of arming devices, the ministry has made an extra expenditure of Rs 73 lakh due to Navy’s injudicious decision of accepting the change in delivery point from CIP Mumbai airport basis to FOB ex-Italian port basis. Also, it was found that the Navy’s failure to revise the delivery dates in a contract resulted in a loss of Rs 37.98 crore.
A senior CAG official said, ‘Such findings in the Ministry of Defence are unacceptable. Such revelation portrays a sorry state of the ministry and considering nation’s security issue, they should work in a mature way to avoid unnecessary payments.’
What came as a ‘shame’ was the audit agency’s finding that Navy has shown weak controls and falsification of official records at Indian Naval Diving Team (Delhi), equipped for undertaking practice diving by naval divers, which led to an incorrect payment of Rs 10.24 lakh as a ‘Dip Money’ to 196 naval divers.
Apart from ‘Dip Money’, the agency has also found submission of false documents by the Navy during payment of Island Special Duty Allowance, which led to an excess payment of Rs 3.29 crore.
In the context of radars, the CAG has raised several points in terms of unwanted expenditure in which either the procurement failed to achieve its target due to lack of communication in planning or the procurement had been delayed.
It was found that that ‘infrastructure worth Rs 2.23 crore for housing the radars could not be utilised due to change in the induction plan. It was further noticed that, failure on the part of Navy to synchronise the procurement of spares with the refit of a submarine coupled with delay on the decision to procure spares affected the quality and completeness of the refit of a submarine,’ the report reads.
‘As far as I know the matter is being probed by the Navy. An internal inquiry has been set up to dig out the truth,’ a Ministry of Defence source said.