UT officers spent Rs 1.63 cr on domestic travel in 8 years — but never a penny more than budget

Interestingly, the sanctioned amount for the domestic travel kept changing every year, and the officers made sure they spent just a wee bit less than the budget allocated for their travel. In some cases, the sanctioned budget was just a few hundred more than the amount spent.

The amount sanctioned for domestic trips varied according to the amount incurred by the officers.

This information was given in response to an application under RTI Act, seeking details of year-wise expenditure on foreign and domestic trips of UT officers from 2014 to date by R K Garg, a resident of Sector 27. Garg said he was forced to take the RTI route as this information was not updated on the UT administration’s official website. He also sought “budgetary allocation and budget spent” on secretariat travel from 2014 to date. However, the details he received were only about “domestic travel expenses” which added up to Rs 1,63,33,112 from 2014-15 to 2021-22.

According to the details supplied by the Chandigarh Administration, 2015-16 saw the highest domestic travel expenditure of over Rs 53 lakh. The expense that year was Rs 53,08,807 while the amount allocated was Rs 54,07,000, almost three times more than Rs 14.87 lakh, the allocation for the preceding year of 2014-15 when the UT spent only Rs 13.43 lakh.

In 2016-17, the amount spent was Rs 15,83,499 while the allocation was Rs 15,84,000, just Rs 501 more. The next year (2017-18), the amount allocated was Rs 22 lakh while the amount spent was Rs 21.95 lakh.

In 2018-19, the domestic travel spend rose to Rs 25.52 lakh against Rs 25.55 lakh allocated that year before dropping to Rs 21.12 lakh against an allocation of Rs 22 lakh the next year (2019-20).

During the pandemic (2020-21), the domestic travel spend fell drastically to Rs 3.68 lakh, before doubling to Rs 8,69,238 in 2021-22, a mere Rs 700 less than the allocated Rs 8,70,000.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Garg said, “The administration is supposed to upload the details and sanction letters of foreign as well as domestic travels on the official website under public notices but there are no details on the site. Why is this being done and who is responsible for this half-baked information on the website? We expect the administration to upload all the information and be proactive in disclosures as per the guidelines of the Government of India.”

He added, “All that we are seeking is transparency. We the citizens must know where and how public funds are being spent.”

A senior officer of the Chandigarh Administration, who sought to explain the expenses and varied allocation accordingly, said that the amount spent comes under the department whose officer is going for the trip.

“It varies from department to department under which the officer is travelling. That is all I can say,” he said.

The UT Finance Secretary and Finance and Planning Officer did not respond to queries sent in by The Indian Express.