Maharashtra: Spend on upkeep of ministers’ bungalows in last 5 years was 10 times over limit: CAG

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The CAG report also raps the government for overlooking “urgent repairs” to some unsafe and dilapidated residential quarters of the police and resident doctors, a girls’ hostel, an ashram school, a district prison and the premises of a small causes court.

The CAG has accessed records of the expenditure on maintenance and repairs of the ministerial bungalows between 2010 and 2015, which includes the period the BJP-led state government has been in power (since October 2014). The ministerial bungalows are all located in South Mumbai’s plush Malabar Hill area.

“The scrutiny of records in the Mumbai Presidency Division (of the public works department) revealed that the actual maintenance and repairs expenditure incurred on 15 residential buildings (read ministerial bungalows) during 2010-15 was six to 20 times the prescribed financial norms,” the CAG has observed.

Spend on upkeep of ministerial bungalows in last 5 years was 10 times over limit: CAG

An expenditure statement annexed to the CAG report lists that as per stipulated norms, the “maximum permissible expenditure” that the government could have incurred on the upkeep of these buildings was Rs 5.3 crore, which is nearly ten times lower than the total expenditure incurred in this period. With the financial norms in this regard last revised in 2005, the CAG has said it had even considered a 20 per cent annual escalation in the limits prescribed while computing the maximum permissible expenditure.

In a bid to further underscore the extent of the splurge, the CAG compared the expenditure on the upkeep of bungalows to the “cost of new construction of the building of the same built-up area”. Considering that the government itself has prescribed a construction cost of Rs 28,500 per sq m for building new properties in the Mumbai region, the CAG has remarked that “these 15 buildings could have been constructed at a cost of Rs 37 crore”.

“The actual expenditure incurred on maintenance and repairs was one to three times the cost of construction of new buildings of the same built-up area,” the CAG has said.

Between 2010 and 2015, the highest spends on maintenance and repairs were incurred on Puratan (Rs 3.5 crore), Meghdoot (Rs 3.25 cr), Parnakuty (Rs 3.23 cr), Satpuda (Rs 3.08 cr), Sewasadan (Rs 3.1 cr), Chitrakut (Rs 2.5 cr), Ramtek (Rs 2.7 cr), Jetwan (Rs 2.77 cr), and Deogiri (Rs 2.51 cr)

The big splurge coincides with the period when successive chief ministers called for austerity measures on account of the state’s poor financial health. The debt on the state exchequer has crossed the Rs 3.3 lakh crore mark in 2015-16.

Simultaneously, the CAG has pointed out that demands raised for repairs of four dilapidated buildings in South Mumbai — police quarters near Pickett Road, two residential buildings inside the JJ Hospital premises, and the Small Causes Court building — remained “unattended”. Requests for similar urgent repairs sought by a government-run girls’ hostel in Nagpur, a public ashram school in Beed and the Parbhani district prison were ignored too.

The state government, in its response to the CAG audit, has accepted that expenditure over the prescribed norms was incurred on the 15 bungalows, but it appeared to justify the expenditure by arguing that “there was a need to revise the norms”.

Among other strictures passed against the PWD, the CAG has also observed that excess funds to the tune of Rs 1,281 crore over admissible limits were released to it during the five years. Again, the presidency division topped this irregularity — Rs 445 crore in excess over five years. The government said, “The division boasts of several VVIP and VIP buildings, including heritage buildings, which require maintenance.” The CAG has, however, rejected this explanation.