Taking notice of the PowerPoint presentation of the Power Department regarding slow pace of audit, Chief Secretary of Delhi, SK Srivastava has directed three discoms to provide all the necessary documents to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). According to information provided by the Power Department, discoms have produced negligible records for the period between 2002-03 and 2007.
Out of the total 877 issues, 357 are pending that is most important for the audit. Tata Power Delhi Distribution limited (TPDDl) is reluctant to provide over 50 per cent information to CAG while the pending information’s per cent is 37.5 per cent to BRPl and 33.33 per cent to BYPl. In other words, information regarding 96 issues is still pending with BSES Rajdhani, 103 of BSES Yamuna and 158 of TPDDl. On the procurement of power, CAG has sought information regarding 90 issues, of these information were provided on only 40 issues. CAG also sought information on metering, billing and collection from consumers, out of 149 issues, 42 is still pending. On operation and maintenance, 17 issues are still pending while 42 issues are pending regarding contract management. On asset utilisation, three discoms have not provided documents related to 27 issues. As far as account is concerned, information is yet to be provided on 57 issues.
The Chief Secretary’s direction came after a high level meeting attended by officials of CAG, power department and three discoms last week. The document accessed by The Pioneer revealed that Tata Power Delhi Distribution limited (TPDDl) showed its inability to produce energy audit reports, internal audit reports and minutes of the audit committee and data related to billing prior to the financial year 2011. “The audit teams have received billing and collection data for the years 2011-12 and 2012-13, however, certain issues such as frequent changes in data supplied and missing fields do remain unresolved,” the document said.
CAG officials also highlighted that they have been writing to discoms since January 7 for smooth flow of information to audit department. On June 19, they have written to Principal Secretary (Power) over slow progress of CAG audit of discoms.
Officials of Power Department said that discoms were told sternly to cooperate and supply all information the CAG demands. “The reason they gave was that the scope of the audit extends back to 2002 — when different software was used to record data and extraction of this data is difficult,” said officials. Sources in the Power Department said that discoms should not hesitate to provide documents to CAG if they did nothing wrong. “If they don’t have document, they given in written that they don’t have such documents,” they said.
“Data by itself is meaningless unless it is submitted in the manner required. The discoms are providing incomplete records and not giving data in the way we want them to,” said CAG official at the meeting. CAG officials made it clear that discoms are hiding bills generated to consumers since 2002-03. Earlier, Delhi High Court has directed discoms to continue to cooperate fully with the CAG.
