CAG finds serious' lapses in Dept of Telecommunications' USOF projects
New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its audit report, which was tabled in the Parliament on Monday, has found 'serious' lapses in the implementation of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), which is under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
In its report, the apex auditor has stated that the DoT had chosen a substandard technology for the USOF project, which was initiated with the mandate to provide mobile services in areas affected by Left Wing Extremism. As per the CAG report, the technology was delivering sub-optimal performance and had limited scope for being augmented which had impacted the performance of the network.
"In addition, though the project had been substantially commissioned, there were delays ranging from 3 to 18 months. The delay in compliance has resulted in the extension of the project from September 2020 to June 2022," the CAG report said, adding that monitoring and evaluation of the project were also inadequate.
The CAG report has stated that even after spending Rs 3,112.32 crore on the project, there is little assurance that the project would prove beneficial in providing critical communications facilities in remote and disturbed areas.
"A different approach involving use of latest available technology along with review and up-gradation of technology would have ensured value for money and better communication facilities in LWE areas," it said.
In the case of the establishment of testing labs under the aegis of Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), the CAG report has found several shortcomings in TEC's performance.
"Out of five Next Generation Network (NGN) labs, only one (transport lab) had been established, which is partially functional," it said, adding that two labs are still in the tendering stage despite a decade has gone by since their original approval.
The CAG report also highlighted that the Department of Posts (DoP) has violated the norms while hiring contractual workers as 18 postal circles, including Delhi, have directly hired casual labourers on daily wages for various tasks without entering into valid contracts in contravention of the General Financial Rules (GFR), which resulted in irregular expenditure of Rs 95.94 crore.
The report has revealed that India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has incurred a loss of Rs 165.10 crore during the period ending 31 March 2019 as the PSU's total revenue was just Rs 48.28 crore. The pan India operations of IPPB were launched on September 1, 2018.
