Delhi councilors defy order on spending disclosure -Governance Now

Delhi councilors defy order on spending disclosure

NGO audits MCD wards, finds most in violation of CIC order on disclosing spending details

Brajesh Kumar | March 5, 2012

A year after the central information commission (CIC) passed an order on public disclosure of the spending of the councilors’ fund, an audit by a NGO reveals that most councilors have failed compliance. Satark Nagrik Sanghthan (SNS) made its audit report public here on Monday.

SNS audited 100 wards out of the total of 270 under the municipal corporation of Delhi and found that boards on which the details of spending were to be put up — in a public place — were either missing or the painted details were illegible.

“In our audit we found only 11 wards had boards in good condition with detailed information in Hindi of the expenditure by the councilor. Boards were not put up in 20 wards, in 14 wards the information given was in English. In six wards boards were put up but there was no information on them while 25 wards had information written on a paper and pasted on the board. In the rest of the wards, the details were illegible,” said Anjali Bharadwaj of SNS.
The CIC, on February 10 last year, had ordered the MCD to put up the boards. The order had come after the information watchdog took cognizance of a complaint filed by SNS under section 18 of the RTI Act stating that the details of the funds spent by the councilors should be available suo-motu for the knowledge of the general public.

SNS carried out the audit with the participation of the residents of all the 100 wards. “In my ward, the expenditure details were written by sketch pen, which after the first shower of the monsoon got erased,” said Mridula Devi of ward number 161, Begumpur in Malviya Nagar in south Delhi.
Pushpa Devi, a resident of ward number 191, Lal Gumbad said that the information was put up on a paper and pasted on the board. “The details are written in small letters and it is very difficult to read,” she said.

Shailesh Gandhi, the information commissioner who had passed the order said he will take action against the councilors only after the residents file a written complaint to the commission.

“I am aware of the non-compliance of my order, but the complaints need to come to me in writing following which I will be in a position to take any punitive action,” he said.

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