Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Friday said the AAP government in Delhi is sitting over 11 CAG Reports and deliberately avoding putting them in the Assembly.

Taking note of this, he has written to Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, urging him to ensure that these reports are tabled in the Assembly at the earliest.

 According to officials, The CAG on July 18 informed the LG Secretariat that 11 of its reports were pending with the Delhi finance minister.

 Raj Niwas officials said Saxena has been constantly flagging the inordinate delay by AAP Government in laying these reports in Delhi Assembly. Eleven CAG Reports pertaining to State Finances, Pollution Mitigation, Regulation and Supply of Liquor in Delhi, Appropriation Accounts, regarding PSUs and social and general sectors and Performance Audit Report on Children in Need of Care and Protection are pending with Finance Minister Atishi Marlena. Some of these CAG Reports are pending since 2022, they added.

The CAG Report on “Performance Audit on Regulation and Supply of Liquor in Delhi” for the period 2017-18 to 2021-22,  was sent to Delhi Government on 04.03.2024, and it is pending with Atishi Marlena since 11.04.2024.

The CAG Report on “Performance Audit on Regulation and Supply of Liquor in Delhi” is critical in wake of the AAP Government’s controversial and failed Excise Policy, which was later scrapped by Kejriwal Government following charges of rampant corruption.

On 18.07.2024, the Controller of Accounts, GNCTD, informed the LG Secretariat that all the above GAG Audit Reports are pending with the Finance Minister, Atishi Marlena.

On 22.02.2024, Saxena had also written to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal regarding pendency of these CAG Report and requested him to “advise the Finance Minister, Delhi, to expeditiously lay them before the Assembly.”

It is constitutional mandate to lay the CAG Reports on the State Finances and performance of various sectors related to governance in Delhi, as per Article 151 of the Constitution read with Section 48 of the Government of NCT of Delhi Act, 1991 and Regulation 210 of the Regulations on Audit and Accounts, 2007.

“By not laying the GAG Reports in the Delhi Legislative Assembly, the Delhi Government is avoiding the scrutiny by the Legislative Assembly and the public at large, undermining the very basis of democratic accountability,” Saxena said.

“Such a lapse by the Government of Delhi in the matter of laying pending CAG Reports before the Delhi Legislative Assembly amounts to gross dereliction of their constitutional obligations,” he said. Earlier also, a number of CAG reports including those on the performance of Delhi Jal Board and the private power discoms in Delhi were deliberately kept pending by the AAP Government for several years, prompting the LG to flag the delays.

"I would urge you to exercise your power and authority upon the Delhi government to ensure that necessary steps are taken under law for laying all pending GAG reports before the Delhi Assembly in the ensuing session without further delay," the LG said.

Depriving the assembly from exercising its legislative control over the executive and avoiding the examination and scrutiny by the Committee on Public Accounts is a "clear violation" of the constitutional and legal provisions, he added.