Is Reporting Corruption a Greater Offence?

Newsreel Asia Insight #11
Oct. 12, 2023

Three officials, responsible for auditing key government projects, have been transferred by India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). The transfer orders follow their involvement in revealing irregularities in high-profile government schemes.

According to The Wire, the CAG issued transfer orders for three officers – Atoorva Sinha, Dattaprasad Suryakant Shirsat and Ashok Sinha – on Sept. 12. These officers were in charge of two out of 12 audit reports presented during the Monsoon session of Parliament, which ended on Aug. 11. The reports exposed irregularities, pointing to corruption, in several Union government ministries.

Sinha, Principal Director of Audit (Infrastructure), New Delhi, was transferred to Kerala as Accountant General. Sinha was in charge of an audit report that found irregularities in the Dwarka Expressway project in the national capital.

The audit report on the Dwarka Expressway project revealed that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) opted for an elevated carriageway in Haryana, inflating costs to 2.5 billion rupees per kilometre from an approved 0.182 billion rupees, Business World reported.

Shirsat, Director (Audit Management Group II) and Director General of Audit for Central Expenditure, New Delhi, was transferred and posted as Director (legal) in the CAG office. Shirsat had audited the Ayushman Bharat, a national public health insurance scheme of the Government of India that aims to provide free access to health insurance coverage for low income earners in the country.

Sinha, Director General (North Central Region), was transferred as Director General “Rajbhasha.” Sinha had initiated the audit of Ayushman Bharat, according to The Wire.

The Ayushman Bharat audit showed irregularities in insurance settlement claims, including claims made against deceased individuals. As per the CAG report, roughly 750,000 beneficiaries were registered under a single mobile number 9999999999. The audit also exposed fraudulent activities in insurance settlement claims, discovering that in 225,000 cases, the date listed for the surgery occurred after the discharge date, according to The Wire, which added that in Maharashtra state alone, more than 179,000 such instances were identified.

Apart from these two reports, the CAG also highlighted several other irregularities in Union government ministries, including toll violations by the NHAI and unsanctioned expenditures by the Ministry of Railways, according to The Wire.

The Congress party and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of corruption. Congress party’s communications chief Jairam Ramesh said in a statement that the central government operates in a “mafia style” and called for the cancellation of the transfer orders.

The AAP held a protest at the Dwarka Expressway, accusing the Modi government of “breaking all records of corruption.”

It was the CAG reports that exposed the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance government’s 2G spectrum and Coalgate scams. The reports were particularly picked up by opposition parties at the time.

The 2G spectrum scandal involved allegations that politicians and private officials from UPA coalition government favoured certain telecom operators by selling or allocating 122 2G spectrum licenses under advantageous conditions.

The Coalgate scam involved the central government’s distribution of the country’s coal reserves to both public sector enterprises and private firms. A preliminary report from the CAG in March 2012 criticised the government for inefficiently allocating coal blocks between 2004 and 2009. This led to a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry in 2012 to determine if corruption played a role in the coal block allocations.

In the 2014 general elections, political analysts credited the BJP’s victory to a burgeoning anti-corruption movement and the electorate’s belief that the party would eradicate corruption nationwide.