Do leaked audit reports make a good story?
On
A week later another story, ¿Works at CWG 2010 venues way behind schedule¿ got published in The Times of India, on August 20th penned by Pradeep Thakur. This story also made a claim that "Sources told TOI that according to the evaluation audit carried out by the CAG work status at as many as 13 of the 19 sports venues under construction or renovation suggests serious delay in planning and implementation".
The sister newspaper of the group, Economic Times also carried a slightly differently worded story ¿Key Games project badly delayed: CAG¿ by the same journalist. The story in ET doesn¿t have any quotes beside unnamed sources that inform us "in the three delinked projects that are considered crucial to the CWG, Shastri Park tunnel corridor to connect east Delhi to north and north-east Delhi, the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg flyover and the elevated east-west corridor from east Delhi to CP area for connecting Games Village to IG Stadium Velodrome and Yamuna Sports Complex, the government had failed to obtain Delhi Urban Arts Commission [DUAC] clearance and hence the projects could not start." However, one will look in vain for reasons cited by DUAC while refusing to clear these projects.
The very next day TOI carried an interview where another journalist Alok Sinha spoke to the Sports Minister M S Gill. Two foreign correspondents also picked up the follow-ups relying on what appeared in print, bringing in their reflections and seeking views from officials linked with Games. [see ¿Delhi Games facing crisis¿ and ¿Comm Game preps well behind the blocks¿.
It was a few months back on March 03, TOI had first reported about this fast track audit being requested in a news story ¿CAG seeks report on Games village preparedness¿. "Sources said the failure of authorities to award works in many key projects had forced CAG to initiate a mid-course review of the Games preparedness. The performance audit of the Games was also necessitated amid fears of a compromise in cost and quality of projects as the government hurries through their completion." Even as the said mid term audit was to take off, the scope that was set for it was clearly akin to strict terms of reference (TOR), "audit will ascertain how delay in awarding contracts will impact the quality and cost of the projects which are yet to take off".
So, right from March when the audit exercise got initiated to now, after the government missed the scheduled tabling of the said audit report there have been news about it, but through sources. All five news items have a very strong focus on commonwealth games projects missing deadlines and seems to portray as if CAG recommends a rethinking in governance to expedite work. From all the news stories one can¿t make out if CAG arrived at this recommendation after a thorough review of the impact of the games projects on urban ecology, compliance with environmental governance norms and having weighed in whether efforts to expedite construction would jeopardise safety and quality concerns. From the news items one can¿t make out if this is a case of a few selective leaks or this bias came in from journalists taking a selective bits to make for a good story. However, all the stories clearly failed to spell out why Delhi Urban Arts Commission rejected certain projects and what would be possible fallouts of rethinking governance.
The story in HT quotes a sentence from the said report, "In view of the complexity and multiplicity of activities … and the progress till date, there is a need to rethink the governance model for the Games Project as well as for similar mega-events in the future". Indeed, if such a recommendatory tone is there in the audit report, it indicates that the CAG went by the strict TOR that suited the organization it was auditing. This tone appears to be in contrast with the way CAG assigned higher priorities to safety and quality concerns during its audit of DMRC wherein it even reprimanded DMRC to having completed work on time but having worked in haste by overlooking safety and quality concerns.
The CAG has come out with such self-contradictory messages in a recent performance audit of hydropower projects by NHPC and NEEPCO during Xth Plan also. While it indicted power PSUs for overlooking geological risks and not carrying out proper impact assessments, it went on to recommend faster environmental clearances [for more see: ¿CAG seeks faster environmental clearances¿ . The CAG needs to remember that it¿s not merely a financial auditor taking a short-term fast track audits designed around TORs, but has to remain steadfast in ensuring that legal requirements are not bypassed in the name of ¿insuring high profile projects against time and cost overruns¿.
The news reporting around war of words between Dy CAG and DMRC chief and now this leaked audit report on Commonwealth Games village also point to a very grave aspect of public finance, accountability and audit concern. What legal recourse does Indian Accounts and Audit Department officers have, in case the audited entity and ministry refuse to file replies on audit paragraphs, other than speaking to media on conditions of anonymity? It is curious however that in the case of CAG audit report on DMRC and in the present one while there have been allusions to ¿delayed tabling¿ and ¿missing the scheduled tabling¿, the news stories and follow ups have sort of overlooked this aspect.