All is not well with the Ministry of Earth Sciences, going by a report of an audit conducted by the internal audit wing of the Ministry.
The 145-page report lists 50 instances of irregularities, most of it relating to the purchase of goods and services without following proper tendering procedures.
Transport
The audit, among other things, has found that the Ministry had spent as much as Rs. 4.54 crore on hiring vehicles over a period of four years [between April 1, 2007 and March 31, 2011]. Vehicles were hired even during weekends and gazetted holidays.
‘’The average run of a vehicle for one day is approximately more than 230 km per day. On some occasions, vehicles have been hired for [even] outstation tour, which is not allowed,’’ report stated.
Furniture procurement
The report, which was submitted to the Ministry recently, has also pointed out that furniture and fixtures worth Rs. 1.83 crore had been purchased without going through the mandatory open tendering process. The purchases, which were made over a period of about six months from October 2010 to March 2011, had been split into 11 parts in order to avoid open tender.
Out of the 11 orders, only one was concurred at the level of Director [Finance], while others were approved at the level of under Secretary [Finance] in the Integrated Finance Division (IFD) wing. Interestingly, a rush of expenditures took place in March 2011 – nine out of the 11 orders were placed during that month.
The biggest order of all, for Rs. 36.34 lakh, was cleared by Director [Establishment] who was acting as a link officer in the place of Director [Finance], as the latter was away on official duty to South Africa in connection with a scientific expedition to Antarctica.
All the orders had been placed on limited tender enquiry basis, but there was neither advertised tender enquiry nor web-based publicity for the tender as required by rules. “No quality assurance, no specification, no EMD and no PBG and no indicative cost/estimated value of tender and fail clause were indicated in the limited tender enquiry while selecting the firm for empanelment’’, the report noted.
Procedures not followed
Besides, the audit has found out a number of instances where goods and services were procured even without following the limited enquiry procedure.
For instance, fitness equipment worth Rs. 25 lakhs, crockery, stationery, and other miscellaneous items worth Rs. 40 lakhs, and laptops and notebooks worth Rs. 11 lakhs were bought from different companies on either spot-quotation or single vendor/tender basis.
Further, it has found that an order for electrical equipment and their maintenance for a total of Rs. 40 lakhs was placed on a shop in Central Delhi and advertisements amounting to Rs. 18.59 lakhs were placed directly in some non-descript newspapers and journals, while as per rules all advertisements have to be routed through the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity.
Private security
The audit has also pulled up the Ministry for engaging a private company for providing the security guard for the Ministry headquarters without consulting the Ministry of Home Affairs or the Central industrial Security Force and for entering into an open-ended contract with another company run by same persons for secretarial and house keeping staff.
The number of persons engaged for secretarial assistance, it noted, has been steadily increasing from 32 in February 2009 to 51 on September 2010, 53 in October 2010, 54 in December 2010, 55 in January 2011, 63 in April 2011 and about 70 in recent months.
Financial irregularities
The audit has also frowned on the Ministry for non-adjustment of advances to the tune of Rs. 13 crore made to staff members, goods and service suppliers and the various institutions under the Ministry during just the past four years, from 2008-09 to 2011-12. Non-adjusted advances to staff members alone for LTA and other purposes totalled about Rs. 9 lakh.
Further, it has pulled it up for lack of adequate action to get utilisation certificates for grants provided to different institutions and organisation. The Audit found that the certificates were yet to be got for grants totalling about Rs. 85 crore under various schemes.
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