The annual confidential report (ACRs) of an IAS officer may now depend a lot on the administrative skills he shows in the implementation of several centrally-sponsored social sector programmes and how effectively he takes a district up on the developmental parameters. Concerned at largescale leakages in many of the social sector schemes, the Manmohan Singh government has asked its official auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), to change the...

A new Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Bill, likely to be introduced in the next session of Parliament, will bring the institution of CAG under the ambit of the Right to Information Act. Talking to the media on the sidelines of the 25th Conference of Accountants General here on Monday, CAG of India Vinod Rai said the new Bill would seek to replace the CAG Act, 1971, and empower the institution...

Ranchi: Another scam involving around Rs.2.5cr in Jharkhand Renewable Energy Department (JREDA) has been unearthed. The alleged scam amount has been siphoned off to various suppliers without obtaining any goods. The State’s Accountant General has submitted a report to the government to this disclosure. The government has immediately ordered a Vigilance enquiry into the scam. JREDA had appointed seven suppliers for supplying solar lamps, Domestic lights and street lights which is...

* A Rs 350 crore scam has surfaced in the Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme * Three organisations are being investigated by the vigilance department of the women WCD ministry for mismanagement and for running creches only on paper * The scheme was for children of women in the unorganised sector * The organisations maintained fake audits and balancesheets signed by CAs Nothing, it would seem, is sacred for scamsters....

A series of social audits in NREGS works in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district led to unearthing of humungous irregularities and filing of FIRs against several government and panchayat officials and release of delayed payments worth crores of rupees to the ordinary NREGS workers (See details/ links below). The irregularities included the use of sub-standard material, non-issuance of job cards or post office passbooks and fudging of account books. The audits were organized...