New Delhi, Aug 9 (IANS) Delhi Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh said on Sunday that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report released on August 7, covering the period up to March 31, 2023, has highlighted irregularities amounting to Rs 3,500 crore under the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government led by the then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Accusing the Kejriwal government of flouting rules, Parvesh Sahib Singh added that the then Chief Minister conducted 1,185 manual tenders and inserted arbitration clauses in tenders, thereby indulging in large-scale irregularities, looting public money and destruction of files related to award of contracts.
Addressing a press conference at the state office, the PWD Minister said that the CAG report is a written document of the corruption under the previous Arvind Kejriwal’s government, as everyone knows that audits were never conducted during his government.
He said that within just 18 months of the present Bharatiya Janata Party-led Delhi government, 24 CAG reports have been received, with each report exposing corruption involving thousands of crores of rupees.
The press conference was conducted by State BJP Media Head Praveen Shankar Kapoor. State BJP spokesperson Yasir Jilani was also present.
Parvesh Sahib Singh said that the CAG report was tabled in the Delhi Assembly two days ago contains detailed information about the alleged corruption committed by the previous Kejriwal government in every financial year.
According to the report, around Rs 70,410 crore in tax revenue was outstanding from certain businesses in Delhi, and the previous Delhi government had failed to recover this amount for more than five years.
The PWD Minister said that the previous Kejriwal government had also indulged in irregularities across various departments.
He added that under the electricity subsidy scheme, there were 50,000 consumers whose electricity bills remained zero for 12 consecutive months, yet they were provided subsidies amounting to Rs 17.81 crore, thereby causing a loss to the government exchequer.
He also said that around 90,000 consumers had not been residing in their homes for six to 11 months, yet the Delhi government provided them electricity subsidies worth Rs 11.88 crore.
He alleged that a total of Rs 42 crore had been released from government funds in the name of power subsidies in such cases and that the matter would be investigated.
He said that corruption had also taken place in the construction of LNJP Hospital under the then Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government.
He added that when the hospital construction began, the cost per bed was expected to be around Rs 33 lakh, but after the then Health Minister Satyendar Jain repeatedly visited the site, the cost increased to Rs 72 lakh per bed.
Parvesh Sahib Singh said that it is mandatory to conduct tenders online, but the previous Arvind Kejriwal government conducted 1,185 manual tenders, in which 14,527 bids were received.
He alleged that the rates were effectively decided in a predetermined manner through mutual understanding among the bidders.
The PWD Minister added that files related to the award of contracts were available in only three per cent of the tenders, while files related to the remaining 97 per cent of contract awards were missing and were not available with the Delhi government.
Parvesh Sahib Singh said that this was the reason why Arvind Kejriwal never allowed audits to be conducted and why he himself did not sign files, resulting in his Ministers going to jail while he did not.
He added that there were 8,334 businesses whose GST registrations had been cancelled, yet they continued to generate e-way bills.
The CAG report covering the period up to March 31, 2023, said that bogus e-way bills worth Rs 68,680 crore were generated.
In addition, there were 4,076 GST non-filers who continued generating e-way bills worth Rs 11,635 crore, and all this, the PWD Minister alleged, was taking place in collusion with the previous Kejriwal government.
Parvesh Sahib Singh said that of the Rs 6.10 crore e-way bills, only 0.10 per cent were examined.
He added that an investigation into some cases found 344 instances of non-compliance, involving a revenue impact of Rs 3,071.92 crore, while a turnover mismatch of Rs 3,710.17 crore was also detected.
–IANS
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