CAG recommends recovery of ₹1,229 crore from contractors and officials over faulty works in BBMP; no money recovered

Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Karnataka audit reports of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) works during 2017-2022 period has raised objections regarding several works and recommended recovery of ₹1,229 crore from erring contractors and officials. However, the State government has sought explanation from the respective unit heads, examining the answers, and recommend dropping the objections. 

This was revealed in the Karnataka Legislative Council when Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister D.K. Shivakumar responded to a question by nominated H.P. Sudham Das, MLC, regarding the same on August 14. 

While Mr. Das asked what was the amount of “scam” unearthed by CAG during its audit of BBMP works from 2017-18 to 2021-22, Mr. Shivakumar said that these cannot be termed as “scam”, but CAG has flagged works which he said had “faults”. Since the audit report doesn’t term any of these works “wrongful” no FIRs have been registered against any contractors, but since works were flagged to be faulty, BBMP had initiated Departmental Enquiry (DE) against several officials, the response states. 

To the question as to how much has been recovered from erring officials and contractors as per CAG recommendations, Mr. Shivakumar has answered that explanations have been sought from unit heads overseeing works that have been flagged by the audit reports and the government has been recommending to drop the objections, based on their answers and action taken reports. 

It can be recalled that the Congress government had also formed four teams of officials to probe works in BBMP during the BJP regime and later withdrew it as Justice H.N. Nagamohan Das Commission was probing into the same. 

N.S. Mukunda, of Bengaluru Praja Vedike, said that not recovering any money from contractors and officials for faulty works was making the entire audit process a farce. “Filing our objections to the recent five corporations, we have suggested that each of these corporations must have an internal audit department staffed by auditors from the CAG to ensure objections are raised before money is paid and not later as a postmortem,” he said.