Finance Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday presented a special audit report of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in which the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has found lack of transparency, systemic problems, poor planning, and careless use of funds in the civic body.
 
On the last day of the budget session, the ruling party members demanded action by the Anti-Corruption Bureau or by a committee of legislators. Fadnavis said as per the procedure, the report would be sent to the Public Accounts Committee for further action.
 
“This is just a trailer. It’s only about the work costing R 12,000 crore,” said Fadnavis while making a statement on the CAG report. He read out the highlights to the house and assured BJP’s Amit Satam that the government would think about probing the corruption angle. However, he refused to form a committee of MLAs to probe, saying that the previous government had set a bad precedent by forming such a panel to probe the tree planting.
 
The CAG was commissioned to audit the period between November 28, 2019 and October 31, 2022, most of which had Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Minister and his party, the then unified Shiv Sena, in power in the BMC. Thackeray was replaced in June 2022. A period between July 2022 and October 2022 falls in the Shinde Sena-BJP regime.  The new government had ordered a CAG probe after allegations of corruption, especially during the pandemic, were raised. The works costing R 12,023 crore by nine departments were specified for the audit.

Also Read: A brief hi to Devendra Fadnavis and a cold shoulder to cousin Raj Thackeray
 
However, the BMC, which has been governed by an administrator since the term of house expired early last year, refused to furnish the expenditure records for the mitigation of Covid-19 (R 3538cr) despite repeated requests, said the CAG, adding that the non-submission of records had deprived the civic body of crucial audit inputs, which would have been beneficial for any course correction and systemic improvements.
 
The audit says the BMC awarded 20 works across two departments, valued at Rs 214.48 crore, without inviting tenders and in violation of its own vigilance rules. In 64 works costing R 4,755.94 crore, the contract agreements were not executed between the contractors. The absence of agreements denied the BMC legal means against the defaulting contractors. In 13 works costing Rs 3,355.57 crore across three departments, third-party auditors were not appointed to assess the works.
 
The report also states that the BMC paid a huge amount for a piece of land in Dahisar, which was reserved for a recreation ground, a playground and a maternity home, but was encroached upon. The BMC has paid 716 per cent more than the rate in 2011 for acquiring the land and in addition, it will spend another R 77 crore for rehabilitation.