The Hindu : New Delhi News : DJB paid salaries to idle staff for 22 months: CAG

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 07, 2007
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New Delhi

DJB paid salaries to idle staff for 22 months: CAG

Staff Reporter

Water utility also did not redeploy them at other establishments in need of workers, says report

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Jal Board paid Rs. 33.08 lakh towards salaries of the staff that was deployed at a sewage treatment plant whose operation and maintenance had been outsourced. The water utility instead of redeploying the "idle" staff at other establishments that were in need of more manpower, continued to pay salaries for 22 months.

The Comptroller and Auditor General's report documenting the DJB's failure to utilise manpower reads: "The staff remained idle for a period of 22 months though the Board suffered from staff shortages in its various other establishments. The total infructuous expenditure incurred on the idle staff was Rs. 33.08 lakh by way of their pay and allowances."

The report says that in May 1995, the DJB was awarded the work of design, construction and commissioning of a STP at Pappankalan to a contractor at a negotiated cost of Rs. 17.46 crore. As per the terms of the agreement, the contractor was to run the STP on a trial basis for three months and then operate and maintain it for one year. Thereafter, DJB was to take over the plant.

The STP was commissioned in May 2002 and the contractor handled the operation and maintenance of the plant up to the end of the contractual period -- August 2003, but the DJB was not in a position to take over the plant due to shortage of skilled manpower and it decided to allow the contractor to continue to operate the plant during the period from September 2003 to December 2005 at a cost of Rs.3.18 lakh per month.

The CAG report says: "An amount of Rs. 82.68 lakh was paid to the contractor as of June 2006 for the period from September 2003 and October 2005. Audit scrutiny of the records relating to the functioning of the STP revealed that the Executive Engineer had in June 2003 projected a requirement of 108 persons of different categories to operate and maintain the plant."

"The DJB initially posted, during December 2003 and January 2004, 56 persons at the STP of which 24 persons were immediately redeployed to various other installations/divisions. However, 14 to 32 persons remained deployed at the STP for varying periods from January 2004 to October 2005. All these departmental staff deployed by the Board remained idle during the entire period of their deployment as the STP was being operated by the contractor."

The DJB has been criticised for failing to utilise the services of the idle staff at the STP or for redeploying them at establishments where they were needed.

"The matter was referred to the Government in June 2006. The Board/Government stated in July 2006 that 27 persons of different categories of qualified staff are required to run such a STP while only seven or eight persons were available. Hence, they had no option but to outsource the running of the new STP," the report further states. Not convinced by the DJB's submission on the issue of idle staff, the CAG has reproached the Board: "The DJB had an overall staff shortage of nearly 22 per cent vis-à-vis their sanctioned strength with the extent of shortages ranging up to 52 per cent in some of the technical categories. Hence, the staff unnecessarily posted in the STP could have been fruitfully utilised elsewhere in the various establishments of the Board."

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