In 95 cases, CoI assessed “financial loss of Rs 50.76 crore”. (File)
New Delhi:
A CAG report for the year ending March 2021 has flagged “persistent delays” in the finalisation of the Court of Inquiry proceedings in the Army, and cited that out of 95 cases involving financial loss in three commands, stipulated timeline for assembly and completion of CoI was met “only in 46 and 25 cases”.
The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Union government (Defence Services-Army) was presented in Parliament on Tuesday.
This report contains the results of audit of the transactions of Ministry of Defence pertaining to the Department of Defence, Army, Military Engineer Services, Border Roads Organisation, and Defence Research and Development Organisation in 2020-21, as per the statement on it issued by the CAG.
It also audited the functioning of the Remount and Veterinary Services and Utilisation of Animal Transport Units.
The Remount and Veterinary Corps (RVC), headed by Director General Remount Veterinary Services (DG RVS), is responsible for breeding, rearing, training and managing health of the entire equine and canine population in the Indian Army.
“Audit covered the period from 2018-19 to 2020-21 which included the period of 13th Army Plan (2017-22). Audit observed that the 13th Plan for RVS did not include capability development and modernisation aspects,” the statement said.
The audit was also on ‘Court of Inquiry in Indian Army’, ‘Raising of Porter Companies in Eastern Command’, and ‘Management of Water Supply by Military Engineer Services’, among others.
“There were persistent delays in finalisation of the CoI (Court of Inquiry) proceedings in Indian Army. Out of 95 cases involving financial loss in the three Army Commands (Central Command, Eastern Command and Western Command), stipulated timeline for assembly and completion of CoI was met only in 46 and 25 cases respectively,” the CAG said in the statement.
In 11 cases, time taken in completion of CoI was “more than two years and even up to 11 years,” it flagged.
“In 10 CoIs related to fire incidents where the Command HQs were authorised to convene a CoI, the convening order was issued by an authority lower than the Command HQs. The terms of reference (ToR) which lay down the scope of investigation for a CoI did not have specific mention of fixation of responsibility and apportioning of blame/loss in 29 cases,” the statement said.
“Further, in 28 out of these 29 cases, there was no mention of the relevant Army Rules, Orders, Instructions, etc., and in 13 of these 29 cases, no mention was made of assessing the extent of loss and damage to life/property,” the audit body said.
The statement further said that in 95 cases, CoI assessed “financial loss of Rs 50.76 crore”.
“The financial losses of Rs 7.12 crore were regularised in respect of 43 cases (April 2022). However, in 52 cases involving financial loss of Rs 43.64 crore, the information relating to regularisation of loss by Competent Financial Authority was not available,” the statement said.
“In 57 out of 95 cases, the required documents relating to intimation of details of loss to accounting authorities, that is, Controllers of Defence Accounts (CsDA), were not available in the documents furnished. As such, Audit was unable to ascertain whether the loss was reported to CsDA either initially or finally after investigation,” it added.
In 20 out of 38 remaining cases, where the Commands/Units furnished details of financial losses to the concerned CsDA after completion of CoI, “the time taken in reporting of losses to CsDA ranged between three months and more than two years,” it flagged.
On the functioning of the Remount and Veterinary Service, it further said that “three out of the six short-term training goals” as per the Technical Training Directive of RVS, related to import of frozen semen of proven elite stallions from European countries to upgrade the sporting potential of Army equines; training of raptors to hunt down drones or surveillance devices; and training of local breeds of dogs to assess their suitability for employment as military working dogs, were “either not achieved or under-achieved”.
On the audit related to the raising of Porter Companies in Eastern Command, the audit body said the Ministry of Defence sanctioned (June 2019) raising of nine Porter Companies (Coys) in the area of responsibility (AoR) under the Headquarters Eastern Command (HQ EC) for the years 2019-20 and 2020-21 at a cost of Rs 180.85 crore and for the year 2021-22, at a cost of Rs 93.78 crore.
“Out of total 12,000 porters hired under the Porter Coys raised between 2019-20 and 2021-22, Corps HQ allotted 11,297 porters to ETFs/Engineer Regiments. Division HQ further allotted only 7,938 porters to ETFs/Engineer Regiments. As such, 3,359 porters were deployed in units other than Engineer Regiments. Out of 7,938 porters deployed, the utilisation certificates rendered by the Engineer Regiments were only in respect of 4,634 porters,” it said.
The report also flagged “unwarranted expenditure due to delay in termination of bandwidth services” by the Canteen Stores Department.
The report also mentions cases of avoidable expenditure of Rs 3.20 crore on account of not following the IRC specification in road markings, and sanctioning similar nature of works under different code heads.
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