CAG audit of BMC’s non-Covid spending may happen by March

Mumbai: Following BMC’s legal notice in December 2022, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)had asked the state government on how it could audit pandemic-related works.
“We have told CAG to go ahead with the remaining subjects, which are not related to Covid spending. The urban development department has referred BMC’s notice and CAG’s query to the law and judiciary (L&J) department, since it is a techno-legal matter now. The L&J department will give an opinion on whether works sanctioned under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and the Disaster Management Act, 2005 can be audited or not,” said a senior state official.
“Prima facie, the L&J department has said that an audit can be done, but whether any further action can be taken is not certain yet. So, a detailed written opinion is awaited,” the official said, adding that the audit of the remaining works may be done before the BMC polls or the budget session of the state legislature in early March.
According to the CM’s communication in October 2022, the CAG, which is a wing under the Centre, is expected to look into controversial decisions by the BMC related to setting up of field hospitals during the pandemic. This would include a land deal at Dahisar as well as purchases of equipment, medicines and oxygen from vendors who were allegedly linked to officials and politicia-ns in office. Large-scale purchases made in the name of medical emergencies have also come under a cloud. In one such deal, the BMC bought two lakh vials of Remdesivir at Rs 1,568 per vial on April 7, 2020. On the same day, Mumbai-based Haffkine Institute and Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation bought Re-mdesivir vials at Rs 668 each.
Shinde had also asked CAG to probe the case of assistant municipal commissioner Manish Valanju, who had approved a contract in his area to Genehealth Diagnostic, a company connected to his father Radhakrishna Valanju. The Rs 290 crore spent on installing an oxygen generation plant to Highway Construction Company was also on the audit list.