CAG transfers auditors who flagged irregularities in central schemes

The Comptroller and Auditor General transferred three officers who were in charge of two audit reports that flagged the alleged irregularities in the Centre’s Bharatmala and Ayushman Bharat schemes, The Wire reported.

The audit reports were tabled in parliament in August. The transfer orders were issued on September 12, the news website reported. Two of the transferred Indian Audit and Accounts Service officers, Atoorva Sinha and Dattaprasad Suryakant Shirsa, were in charge of the audit reports that flagged the alleged irregularities in the Dwarka Expressway project and Ayushman Bharat scheme.

The third officer, Ashok Sinha, had initiated the audit of Ayushman Bharat, The Wire reported.

Atoorva Sinha, who had become the principal director of audit infrastructure in Delhi in March, has now been posted as the accountant general in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, the report said. He was in charge of the report on highway projects under the Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-I that pointed out number of irregularities. Bharatmala is Centre’s flagship road development scheme.

The Comptroller and Auditor General reports had flagged irregularities in the Bharatmala project, the construction of Dwarka Expressway, violation of toll rules by the National Highways Authority of India, the Ayushman Bharat Scheme and alleged undue advantage to the contractors in the Ayodhya Development Project.

The budget for the Dwarka expressway project...

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