The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has raised questions over the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi spending more than Rs10bn in a gap of 30 days. It said the spending was against financial rules.
The CAG has pulled up the government for dumping funds meant for several items into an account for the entire year and then spending suddenly while approaching the end of the financial year.
The Delhi government has been questioned for spending money overstepping the rules in 26 items, including health, education, city development and social welfare.
The CAG’s report on the ‘State Financial Management of the Government of Delhi between 2017-18’ adds: “General Financial Rule (GFR) 56 states that the process of spending the entire budget suddenly in the last months of the financial year is against financial rules. This should be avoided”. Despite this in the last quarter of 2017-18, a huge amount was spent under 26 sub-heads, the report said.
The CAG further stated that during the audit, it was revealed that a total of Rs14.04bn was spent on 26 items in 2017-18, of which Rs11.01bn was spent in the last quarter (January, February and March). Of this, Rs10.64bn was spent in just one month – March, 2018.
The CAG said the amount spent so hastily in the last quarter, especially in March, shows that the rules were not followed.
The report of the CAG was tabled in the Lok Sabha on December 2.
Meanwhile Kejriwal yesterday claimed his government had eradicated corruption and did away with unwanted expenditure, adding the AAP government and legislators got a clean chit from the CAG for the five consecutive years and other investigation agencies, like the CBI,  the enforcement directorate and the Income Tax, couldn’t find fault irrespective of ruthless scrutiny.
Speaking in the Assembly, he said his government spent the money on people and it was the most accountable government ever in India.
“The Delhi government reduced corruption, unwanted expenditure and spent the money for providing facilities to the people. It got clean chit from CAG and other investigation agencies irrespective of ruthless scrutiny in the last five years,” Kejriwal said during the concluding session of the Assembly yesterday.
While Delhi offered a people-centric development model, the Union government followed crony-capitalism, he said.
“In spite of harsh scrutiny, the CAG couldn’t find anything wrong with the Delhi government in the last five years. In 2015, people of Delhi gifted us an unprecedentedly massive victory with 67 seats out of 70. After five years, we have fulfilled the responsibilities entrusted to us by the public,” 
the chief minister stressed.
He said all agencies controlled by his political opponents had scrutinised them.
“The CBI raided my office. The Delhi Police raided my house. My fellow ministers – Manish Sisodia, Satyendra Jain and Kailsah Gahlot – were also raided by the central agencies. They got nothing suspicious. It was the first time a chief minister’s bedroom was searched by the police.
“Our principle on probity that a public servant should always be ready for public scrutiny took us ahead. When some people expressed fear over complaints against MLAs, I said don’t worry; Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and his agencies will take care of such complaints,” Kejriwal said.
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