Chennai: Local bodies in the state, including Chennai, Vellore and Thoothukudi corporations, have been criticised in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor general of India. The CAG report 2014 tabled in the Assembly pointed out that Chennai and Vellore Corporations failed to address civic woes by delaying projects worth several crores.
Commenting on Chennai corporation, the CAG report said e-governance system introduced in Chennai in 2010, was incomplete even after four years incurring an additional expenditure of Rs 5.48 crore on hardware and software. Of the 13 modules, integration of seven modules was yet to be done and the entire e governance system suffered due to weak process and lack of data integrity.
Poor management of administrative changes such as migration of legacy data, and handling of dishonoured cheques aggravated the loss to city corporation. The ineffective administration did not raise justified demand amounting to Rs 34.99 crore under property tax revenues during 2009- 2013, the report said.
The CAG which had also conducted a performance audit on Vellore city corporation said the functioning of local body and execution of schemes were not satisfactory. “There was shortage of human resource affecting functioning of Vellore corporation, including arrears in tax collection, failure to supply drinking water as per norms, lack of solid waste management, non provision of toilet and drinking water facilities in schools and closure of six health institutions due to lack of staff”, the report said. The CAG also came down heavily against the Vellore corporation for its failure to control pollution in Palar river and allowing indiscriminate dumping of garbage.
