CAG finds ‘gross irregularities’ in Construction Workers’ Welfare Board

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has found “gross irregularities” in the functioning of the Karnataka Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board (KBOCWWB) and said the board released ₹433.80 crore to the Karnataka Slum Development Board (KSDB) without obtaining the beneficiary list.

CAG noted that many ineligible workers, such as tailors, clerks, weavers, and other professions, were registered as construction workers, and that they availed themselves of benefits from the Board established in 2007.

Under health schemes, payments were made to unregistered workers or their dependents violating the rule, it said.

Registrations jump

The CAG report was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday. The report noted that the registration of the construction workers increased from 7.94 lakh in 2020-21 to 11.95 lakh in 2022-23. This could be attributed to cash assistance and other benefits released for the registered construction workers during the COVID pandemic.

The CAG noted that KBOCWWB released ₹8.74 crore to the Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation Ltd. for the housing scheme without obtaining the beneficiary list/details in Haveri district.

KBOCWWB issued directions in July 2023 to the Labour Officers to verify and ascertain the genuineness of the beneficiaries selected by the Slum Board.

Audit scrutinised 480 cases out of 5,624 beneficiaries furnished by the Slum Board, and it was found that KBOCWWB irregularly granted benefits to 53 underage or over-aged beneficiaries, contravening the prescribed guidelines.

KBOCWWB was yet to trace remittances of ₹5.27 crore from the KSDB as of August, 2024.

No comprehensive database

The CAG noted that the KBOCWWB did not have a comprehensive database of cess collecting/remitting agencies. Neither was it aware of the actual cess amount due, the amount collected, nor the amount remitted. KBOCWWB did not appoint any authority to assess the collected cess, it stated.

The data from the Seva Sindhu Portal, consisting of 42.50 lakh registered beneficiaries, was inadequately validated before being entered into the database. CAG analysed the data of all the registered beneficiaries from the portal and found many discrepancies. The age at the time of registration was shown as more than 60 years in 1,150 cases, while the gender column was blank in more than three lakh cases.