Bhubaneswar, Sept 26 : The Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s report for the period up to March 2023 has been published. Like a great offering from a potato pit, one shocking fact after another of corruption has come to light in the said report. The CAG report is a strong proof of how the previous BJD government was looted under the name of various schemes.
A study of the CAG report reveals how the previous BJD government was mired in corruption. The current BJP government has demanded that all the corruption and irregularities committed during the previous BJD government, starting from the guilty officials, employees or party leaders, be they party leaders, be they registered cases and sent to jail.
Today, at a press conference held by the Congress Media Cell at Congress Bhavan, Senior Congress Spokesperson Shri Jagdanand Pradhan presented many facts of corruption based on the CAG report. Shri Pradhan said that the previous government’s misdeeds stood on the mountain. Spokesperson Shri Jagdananda Pradhan said that the extent of transparency is evident from the data on corruption worth crores of rupees in the five departments that are said to be the mirror of transparency.
Shri Pradhan alleged that corruption worth crores of rupees has taken place in each department of the previous government, namely Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes Upliftment, Minority Communities and Backward Classes Welfare, Housing and Urban Development, Social Security and Empowerment of the Disabled, Higher Education, Information and Public Relations, Revenue and Disaster Management, Skill Development and Technical Education, etc.
It has been alleged that corruption worth crores of rupees has been transacted in various projects carried out for the integrated socio-economic development of the tribal population living in the Scheduled Areas under the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes Development Authority. The engineers in charge of these project works have directly diverted project funds worth Rs 148.75 crores for personal transactions through their personal bank accounts. Instead of withdrawing money from departmental accounts, they have withdrawn money from their own accounts through ATM withdrawals, UPI transfers, mobile recharges and insurance premium payments. The Congress has demanded action against the departmental officials involved in this.
Similarly, the audit of the Amrit and Vasudha projects under the Urban Water Supply Enhancement Scheme in Odisha has revealed that Rs 3,279.59 crore was made available for the implementation of these schemes between 2018-19 and 2022-23. Of this, only Rs 2,808.27 crore has been spent. However, many projects remain incomplete.
A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has said that private special schools run by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for children with disabilities in Odisha have been hampered by weak infrastructure and lack of basic amenities. To assess the quality of schools, 23 to 35 per cent of the 65 sample schools run by NGOs operating in eight districts during 2018-23 were functioning without mandatory registration as per the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act.
He also spoke about the corruption in the higher education sector under the National Higher Education Mission (RUSA) mentioned in the CAG report. 158 educational institutions in the state received Rs 699.94 crore under the National Higher Education Mission (RUSA), while its utilization till March 29, 2023 was Rs 562.86 crore.
Five of the six model degree colleges under RUSA, built at a cost of over Rs 40 crore, are lying abandoned. In addition, a Rs 11.30 crore project for a cluster university in Berhampur could not be implemented due to administrative tussles. Utkal University was found to have distributed laptops and desktops worth Rs 1.83 crore intended for a central ICT lab. Biju Patnaik University of Technology had purchased 180 desktop computers for its central library at a cost of Rs 97.15 lakh in November 2016. While 65 desktops were distributed to various academic and administrative departments, the remaining 115 had been lying idle for over six years as of March 2013.
Similarly, the state government had started online tendering in 2008 using the e-procurement system or portal developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The objective was to eliminate human intervention, bring transparency in the tender process, facilitate quick dissemination and access to tender information and provide a fair competitive platform that would protect the authenticity. .
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has highlighted significant shortcomings in the implementation of the e-procurement system in Odisha, raising concerns about the transparency and integrity of the state’s tendering and contracting process. Despite e-governance, key processes such as tender evaluation, sale and contract were being handled manually. Despite the implementation of e-procurement since 2008 and the implementation of the Government of India guidelines in 2015, only 29 out of 40 departments of the Odisha government have registered under the e-procurement scheme. 11 were not registered.
Similarly, the CAG has found serious protocol violations in the implementation of the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) in Odisha. The CCTNS project, a centrally sponsored mission mode initiative under the National e-Governance Scheme, was launched in Odisha in 2013 to enhance policing efficiency by creating a digitized, nationwide crime and offender database. As of March 2023, the Centre and the state had jointly spent a total of Rs 176.16 crore. The CAG found irregularities in the tender process, which gave undue benefits to software service providers. The Congress has questioned who is responsible for the failure of this scheme in Odisha.
Similarly, the Odisha government has failed to recover full compensation from the miners who illegally extracted iron and manganese ore without Environmental Clearance (EC) or Forest Clearance (FC), said the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Shri Pradhan said that earlier, in a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on the ‘Performance Audit of Odisha Mineral Bearing Area Development Corporation (OMBADC) Fund Management’ presented in the Odisha Assembly on April 2, 2025, it was stated that the state government was supposed to recover about Rs 4,000 crore from the defaulting mining leaseholders. But till date, it has not been recovered nor has any step been taken to recover this money, Shri Pradhan said.
Similarly, the Centrally Empowered Committee appointed by the Supreme Court in its report on January 17, 2018, recommended recovery of Rs 19,174.38 crore as compensation from 131 mining leaseholders for violating the rules by not obtaining environmental clearances and forest clearances. As of December 2017, 82 of the 131 mining leaseholders had paid only Rs 8,289.87 crore out of the Rs 19,174.38 crore. The remaining payment of Rs 10,884.51 crore has not been made yet, said Congress spokesperson Shri Jagdanand Pradhan.
The current BJP government needs to take strict action against the concerned departmental officers and functionaries involved in corruption and irregularities in the previous government on the basis of the CAG. Congress has demanded that based on the CAG report, which employees and officers are involved in which corruption or irregularities and who are involved in them be investigated and sent to jail.
Currently, there is a double engine government of BJP in the Centre and Odisha and this government has repeatedly raised the slogan of zero tolerance towards corruption. Congress is not alleging corruption, the Honorable CAG is. How much importance the current government has given to the CAG report and is taking concrete steps against the guilty, how serious the government’s zero tolerance is, will be revealed, said Spokesperson Shri Jagdanand Pradhan.
