CAG finds gaps in implementation of SAUBHAGYA, DDUGJY schemes; pulls up REC

New Delhi, Dec 18 (PTI) From delays in awarding projects and early payment contractors to submission of unapproved DPRs, the CAG has found major gaps in the timely implementation of two government's ambitious power sector initiatives SAUBHAGYA and DDUGJY.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has pulled up the implementing agency REC, based on findings.

The Performance Audit of 'Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana' (DDUGJY)/ 'Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana' (SAUBHAGYA) was presented in Parliament on Thursday, the CAG said in a statement issued to media.

In 2014, the Centre launched the DDUGJY mainly with three primary objectives -- increasing the hours of power supply to non-agricultural consumers and assured power supply to agricultural consumers, strengthening distribution network in rural areas, and completing the ongoing work of rural electrification under erstwhile Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY).

CAG said that it has found "there was delay in award of work in 494 projects (81.65 per cent) out of 605 projects in 24 States and two UTs".

Delay in conducting village inspection, non-identification of model quality villages and other deficiencies in compliance of Quality Assurance Mechanism Guidelines were also noticed.

The State Level Standing Committee (SLSC), as one of the stakeholders in implementation, was responsible for recommending the detailed project reports (DPRs) for approval and also responsible for monitoring progress, quality control and resolving issues relating to implementation of sanctioned projects.

However, instances were observed where DPRs were submitted to REC without SLSC recommendations.

CAG said DPRs were not based on detailed field survey and eventually, the same were found to be having under/over-estimation of quantities in respect of electrification of village/households, feeder separation and system strengthening in projects.

On the financial front, the CAG has found that REC released grants of Rs 541.56 crore to six out of 27 states and three UTs in the first instalment, which was made 13 to 360 days prior to the date of execution of tripartite/bipartite agreement and appointment of project management agency.

Further, early payment of Rs 1,603.81 crore was made to six states without ensuring timely infusion of contribution of the state government into the projects.

On SAUBHAGYA scheme, the audit report said the initiative was launched in October 2017 for providing last mile connectivity and electricity connections to all un-electrified households.

An estimated total un-electrified households to be covered under SAUBHAGYA were 300 lakh.

The SAUBHAGYA dashboard claimed 100 per cent achievement of electrification target upon the electrification of 262.84 lakh households by March 2019. However, of these 262.84 lakh households, only 151.60 lakh households were electrified under SAUBHAGYA.

All 25 states, where the scheme was implemented, declared that 100 per cent household electrification was achieved between November 2018 and March 2019.

An analysis of the information received during audit and that available on the dashboard revealed that estimation of households for electrification shown on the dashboard was reduced to 248.48 lakh from 300 lakh in the scheme guidelines.

Achievement of 100 per cent against the target was declared by March 2019 accordingly.

Seven states reported 19.10 lakh un-electrified households as of March 31, 2019. Thus, the audit could not ascertain genuineness of electrification of households.

Further, discoms submitted the DPRs without conducting field surveys. All 36 participant discoms of 24 states submitted DPRs with a delay ranging between 71 and 418 days, which delayed the review of DPRs and sanction of households by the monitoring committee for implementation of scheme.

A total of 16,728 households were released connections under DDUGJY as well as in SAUBHAGYA in two states, leading to duplicate claim of same work by the contractor.

Despite getting the required grant under DDUGJY, grant of Rs 7.53 crore from nodal agency REC was also claimed under SAUBHAGYA, resulting in double payment to DISCOMs.

Instances of extending undue benefits to contractors, viz., making payment without ensuring completion of work, and double payment for same work, amounting Rs 2.24 crore were also noticed in audit.

On financial management of the SAUBHAGYA scheme, CAG said REC raised Rs 500 crore (March 2020) through extra budgetary borrowing, of which it could spend only Rs 95.65 crore up to March 2021 and Rs 404.35 crore remained unutilised.

The amount of Rs 500 crore was raised by REC when a sum of Rs 352.32 crore was already lying with it.

This reflects that the requirement of fund for disbursement to discoms was not adequately assessed by REC, which resulted in avoidable interest burden of Rs 15.97 crore on the Ministry of Power due to payment of interest on the unutilised funds raised through extra-budgetary borrowing.

Against the limit of reimbursement of Project Management Agency (PMA) charges @ 0.5 per cent of the project cost in other similar schemes, the monitoring committee allowed the reimbursement of PMA charges to Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Assam to the extent of 5.43 per cent, 1.70 per cent, and 1.76 per cent, respectively, of the project cost without any detailed analysis. PTI ABI TRB TRB