The audit covered the period between November 28, 2019, and October 31, 2022, and interestingly Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray was the chief minister of Maharashtra till June 29, 2022.
A special audit report on Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the governing civic body of Mumbai, has highlighted major systemic problems, poor planning, and careless use of funds in BMC. The report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) was presented in the Maharashtra legislative assembly by Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Devendra Fadnavis Saturday.
The audit covered the period between November 28, 2019, and October 31, 2022, and interestingly till June 29, 2022, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray was the chief minister of the state.
The audit said, “The records related to expenditure for management of Covid-19 were not produced for audit by BMC despite repeated requests. The non-production of records apart from impinging on the Constitutional responsibilities devolved on the Comptroller and Auditor General of India also deprived BMC of crucial audit inputs, which would have been beneficial for any course correction and systemic improvements.”
Interestingly, the preface of the audit report says that the state government despite repeated reminders by the office of the Accountant General (Audit)-I, Maharashtra, to direct the BMC to produce the records related to Covid-19 management, no records were produced.
The audit observed that the BMC awarded 20 works across two departments valued at Rs 214.48 crore without inviting tenders, which was against the provisions of the manual of procurement of BMC and established vigilance guidelines.
Further, contract agreements were not executed between the contractors and BMC in 64 works costing Rs 4,755.94 crore across five departments. In the absence of formal agreements, BMC would not be able to take any legal recourse against the contractors, in the event of default on the part of the contractors. Moreover, in 13 works costing Rs 3,355.57 crore across three departments, third-party auditors were not appointed to ascertain the quality/quantity of works executed by the contractors.
These major lapses point to the scant respect for established procedures and weak internal controls in BMC, leading to a lack of transparency and probity in the execution of works taken up at a significant cost.
Further, the specific findings observed during the audit of the departments highlight the major systemic problems, poor planning, and careless use of funds by BMC. These irregularities are brought to the notice of the Urban Development Department of the state government for necessary remedial action to eliminate malfeasance and to improve the overall performance of BMC thereby ensuring integrity in the use of public funds.
Ever since the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government came to power in November 2019, the BJP had been accusing Thackeray’s Sena-led BMC of corruption and irregularities. Soon after the rebel Shiv Sena group toppled the Thackeray government and Eknath Shinde- Fadnavis government came to power, it announced a CAG audit of the BMC. Interestingly, BJP shared power with Sena in the BMC till 2017.
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