Mumbai: Year on, BMC is yet to finish special audit of Rs1,000-cr work

The NESCO jumbo COVID centre in Goregaon, on November 30, 2020. Pic/Sameer Markande

Nearly a year after the BMC's then standing committee ordered special scrutiny of 150 COVID-related projects, its chief auditor is yet to complete the audit. This comes at a time when the state government has asked national auditor CAG to probe civic proposals worth Rs 12,000 crore. "We are working on that. Audit work is going on," said Municipal Chief Auditor Sitaram Kale.

After opposition members raised questions over expenses in projects related to COVID, then standing committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav on December 23, 2021, had ordered the audit of proposals worth Rs 1,000 crore.

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Sources said most of the purchases and tender work during the pandemic had been done by the BMC's central purchase department. "A 12-member team of the audit department is on the job. Work is underway to gather more information about all these proposals," said a source. Between April and December 2021, the BMC used its special powers to spend about Rs 2,500 crore to tackle COVID. In such cases, the administration doesn't need to take approval from the standing committee.

"The BJP had demanded a white paper on expenses for COVID during the pandemic. The chairman had agreed to our demand and directed us to conduct an audit," said Bhalchandra Shirsat, a BJP ex-corporator. "However, the audit has not been done yet. There was a deluge of corruption during the pandemic. Contracts were awarded illegally to inexperienced companies," Shirsat added, "but now CAG audit will reveal corruption."