The Comptroller and Auditor General has asked Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung to be proactive in ensuring that the three private power distribution companies cooperate with government auditors.
On Tuesday, Principal Account General (Audit) Delhi – Dolly Chakrabarty – wrote to the L-G after allegedly receiving incomplete and improperly presented data from the three discoms – Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL), BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna. The Aam Aadmi Party-led government had ordered an audit of the companies in January which had been challenged in the High Court. The Court had allowed the audit to continue while the plea is being heard. The CAG has complained twice to the HC that the discoms were resisting full disclosure.
Following the CAG’s missive to the L-G, Chief Secretary S.K. Srivastava chaired a meeting on Thursday, along with Delhi’s Power Secretary Arun Goyal and Ms. Chakrabarty, in which the discoms were ordered to cooperate or face punitive action, which could extend to cancellation of their licences to operate.
Mr. Goyal told The Hindu : “In the meeting.. discoms were told sternly to cooperate and supply all information the CAG demands. They were asked to give a clear roadmap on how they will do so. The reason they gave was that the scope of the audit extends back to 2002 – when a different software was used to record data and extraction of this data is difficult.”
A senior CAG auditor told The Hindu that the discoms were avoiding submission of complete data. “Data by itself is meaningless unless it is submitted in the manner required. The discoms are providing incomplete records and not giving data in the way we want them to. The quality of the data is in question and unless we get the full data we cannot comment on whether the discoms are covering up,” the source said.
The official added: “We have asked the Delhi Government to be more pro-active as their officers are on the boards of these discoms. It is the Delhi Government that requested the audit and it is their responsibility to ensure compliance.”
The discoms are a 51:49 joint venture between the private companies and the Delhi Government. In TPDDL, the majority stake is held by Tata Power whereas Reliance Infrastructure of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group is the majority stakeholder in the other two companies. The CS, Finance Secretary, Power Secretary and Additional Power Secretary of Delhi are on the boards of these companies.
Ajey Maharaj, Head of Group Corporate Communications at TPDDL, told The Hindu that most of the CAG’s queries had been answered. “The data is voluminous and takes time to compile. The meeting was merely to monitor the progress of the audit. We are continuing to cooperate.”
BSES Delhi spokesman Prashant Dua said: “We have been fully cooperating in the audit process and would continue to do so. We have already submitted information on nearly 84 per cent of the queries raised in over 520 responses, spread over 40,000 pages. Auditors have also been provided viewing rights on the desired data base.”
