Delhi L-G flags delay in tabling 11 CAG reports in letter to Assembly Speaker

Lieutenant-Governor flags delay in tabling CAG reports in Delhi Assembly, urges Speaker to take necessary steps promptly.

Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena on Friday (August 16, 2024) flagged a delay in the tabling of 11 Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports in the Delhi Legislative Assembly in a letter to Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, said Raj Niwas officials.

Some of the reports, which are on matters related to State finances, pollution mitigation, regulation and supply of liquor, appropriation accounts regarding public sector units, and a performance audit report on children in need of care and protection, have been pending with the Finance Minister since 2022, the officials alleged.

On July 18, the CAG informed the L-G that 11 reports were still pending, they added.

However, a source from the Delhi government said the reports would be tabled “soon”.

The L-G in his letter termed the delay a “clear violation of constitutional and legal provisions” and urged him to ensure that the reports are tabled in the Assembly at the soonest.

“The lapse by the Delhi government in laying the pending CAG reports before the Assembly amounts to gross dereliction of its constitutional obligations,” he said.

The report on the performance audit of the regulation and supply of liquor in the 2017-2022 period, for instance, was sent to the Delhi government on March 4, 2024, and has been pending with the Finance Minister since March 11, officials said, adding that the report was critical in view of the scrutiny of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.