NEW DELHI: In an unusual move, the Comptroller and Auditor General has written a strongly-worded letter to the Bengal chief secretary on Friday saying that state authorities have not been cooperating with its audit teams and have refused to share any information related to the audit of cyclone Amphan relief and rehabilitation expenditure.
While the Centre has allocated more than Rs 2,700 crore towards Amphan relief, the state government had announced release of Rs 6,800 crore for rehabilitation of the displaced people.
“As on date, no information has been made available to the audit teams… The original timeframe (within three months) provided by the Calcutta High Court is already almost over. However, CAG has not been able to start the full-fledged audit,” sources said.
The CAG letter comes weeks after BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh had accused CM Mamata Banerjee and her party cadre of “looting” Rs 1,000 crore released by the Centre for the relief of the Amphan displaced. Large-scale irregularities have been reported in the state where Rs 2 lakh each was to be given to the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to injured besides a package for rebuilding of houses.
After the opposition attack accusing Trinamool cadres of cornering the relief packages, Banerjee had called for an inquiry last year and later told the media that the government had received 40,000 complaints from people who had not received the relief money. However, she had assured that most of them were later included in the list prepared by the district authorities.
In its letter to the chief secretary, the CAG has reminded that for the last three months its principal accountant general has been seeking information from state authorities to complete the audit but “needful information have not been provided”.