The Delhi Government on Tuesday said it is ready for getting the accounts of power distribution companies audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to “put an end to all suspicions in the minds of people”.
The Delhi Government is acting on the recent orders of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission that had suggested getting the accounts of the power distribution companies, BYPL, BRPL and NDPL examined by the CAG for the financial years 2007-2008, 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. Recently the Delhi High Court had also issued notices to the discoms asking them to file their response on a petition seeking audit of their accounts by the CAG. Representatives of resident welfare associations have also been demanding a CAG probe into the accounts of the companies. In a statement issued here, the government has announced that it has now agreed to get the audits done by the CAG to clear the air about financial bungling by the power companies. Resident welfare associations and non government organisation had approached the DERC for getting the audits done by the CAG; the Commission in turn had suggested the same to the Delhi Government in 2010.
“The Government has agreed to occasionally conduct the CAG audit as pointed out by the DERC to show its conviction for auditing by the CAG,” an official release said.
A senior official of the government said the audit will be carried out for the last three years i.e. FY 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 and may even be carried out in the future if the need arises.
“The DERC had communicated to the Delhi Government that during the course of public hearings on tariff petitions filed by the discoms, a majority of the stakeholders had submitted that there were anomalies in the accounts of companies and that their accounts should be verified,” the official said.
The Power Department of the Delhi Government has also informed the DERC that as per 8.2.1 of Tariff Policy issued by the Central Government, the DERC should institute a system of independent scrutiny of financial and technical data submitted by the licensees.
“However, the issue of audit is already sub-judice in the High Court and the next date of hearing is on November, 16,” the official said.
