Ghaziabad dept body to curtail expenses after row over CAG audit

GHAZIABAD: Nearly a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi flayed Akhilesh Yadav government for not allowing CAG audit of expenditure in Ghaziabad Development Authority, the civic body has set in motion a process to curtail unwanted expenses in the authority.

According to sources, GDA vice-chairman Vijay Kumar Yadav recently wrote to its finance wing seeking details of expenditure under various heads and draw a plan wherein extravagances could be checked.

"The vice-chairman issued a directive to draw a plan where we could curtail unwanted expenses and we are in the process of preparing it," said T R Yadav, finance controller, GDA.

"The running cost of GDA comes to nearly Rs 75 crore in a year which includes administrative cost, establishment cost, repair and maintenance cost, expenses on vehicles and on training and workshop," said Yadav.

The annual administrative cost comes to nearly Rs 4.76 crore while the establishment cost per year is Rs 4 crore. The expenses on repair and maintenance of all buildings owned by GDA is Rs 4.49 crore per year.

GDA also spends Rs 25 lakh annually on fuel and maintenance of vehicles, while Rs 11 lakh is spent on training and workshops.

"By judicious use of resources, we can save crores. For instance, we have outsourced computer operations to nearly 40 others which cost us immensely. We could use available manpower resources within GDA for the purpose instead of outsourcing them," he said.

"Likewise, stationery, newspaper and magazines cost us nearly Rs 21 lakh annually. We could check these expenses also," said Yadav.

During an election rally in Ghaziabad on February 8, Narendra Modi specifically took GDA's name and said that if voted to power in the state, the BJP will make CAG audit mandatory for all authorities including GDA.

The Akhilesh Yadav government in the past refused to allow CAG audit of GDA on the ground that funds allotted to it comes from state government's coffer, while the rest is generated by GDA itself.

 Source: ET Realty