Auditing has returned after 14 years to haunt the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation where the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party enjoys a brute majority. In its latest report on a three-year audit, the civic auditors stated that documents and files relating to Rs 394 crore have been reported missing. Besides, the auditors also raised objections to a bill of Rs 44 crore granted for various works and pointed out that Rs 17 crore has to be recovered from civic contractors. The audit report relates to financial years 2005-2006, 2006-2007 and 2007-2008. It has been placed before the standing committee by PCMC chief auditor Padmashree Taldekar. The committee is expected to issue directions to the civic administration vis-a-vis the missing documents. [related-post] The PCMC’s chief auditor said they had pointed out in the report that the civic administration has not been able to produce documents and files pertaining to the said Rs 394 crore. “This means there was non-production of papers that the audit department sought from civic offices. We had given them a month to produce the documents related to Rs 394 crore. But officials from different departments have not been able to produce the papers,” said Taldekar. The civic administration has cited reasons like “officials concerned have retired or have been transferred”, and “the said papers are not available” for non-availability of the documents. Audit officials said there were reasons to believe there was something fishy. Taldekar, however, did not call it a scandal. “We have placed the report before the standing committee which will issue necessary directions to the civic administration. We will wait for production of the documents that we have sought. We wouldn’t liken it to a scandal as of now as there is a possibility that these documents could be found in piles of documents lying in civic offices,” she said. There is no trace of documents related to the Rs 394 crore. Only some papers related to the said Rs 44 crore are available. “We raised objections to Rs 44 crore spent by the civic administration. The papers related to the transactions are only partially available,” an audit official said. Besides, Rs 17 crore was handed over to civic contractors by the civic administration against laid down norms. “This amount will have to be recovered from civic contractors. The civic administration has not followed norms while handing over the amount,” audit officials said. The audit report has specially pointed fingers at the civil departments, divisional offices, water, sewage and electrical departments. The report said these three departments collectively have to produce documents relating to an amount of 200 crore footed by PCMC. When contacted, PCMC commissioner Rajeev Jadhav said he would convene an urgent meeting of civic officials in this connection in a day or two. “I will issue necessary directions to comply with the request for papers made by the auditors,” he said. Maruti Bhapkar, who, as a civic activist in 1999 filed a public interest litigation said, “In 2001, the Bombay High Court passed strictures against PCMC after auditors had raised objections to a spending of Rs 500 crore. The court had then asked as to why PCMC should not be dissolved.” Bhapkar said despite High Court’s objections, the latest audit report reveals the malaise that runs deep in the PCMC. “It is time the PCMC chief acts tough on guilty officials,” Bhapkar said. The Nationalist Congress Party—which rules the PCMC and where Ajit Pawar’s writ runs-it has nothing to do with the “missing” papers. “It is the responsibility of civic officials of the departments concerned to produce relevant documents. The NCP is in no way involved in this.” said NCP local unit president Yogesh Behl. Behl said that to avoid such happenings, NCP has been insisting on timely audits. “The audit of 2005-2006 is being conducted now. Why can’t we have audits of a year the next year? If we have regular audits, we won’t have such problems,” he said. Other NCP leaders said they will take up the matter with Ajit Pawar and request him to direct PCMC to conduct audits from time to time.
