Delhi HC Asks CAG to Expeditiously Audit Jal Board's Accounts

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to expeditiously audit the accounts of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) from 2018 to 2021. The high court’s direction came while closing the proceedings of a plea seeking direction to CAG to audit the accounts of DJB whose financial audit has allegedly not been carried out for the last several years.

The court was informed by the counsel for CAG that they have received annual accounts statements from DJB for 2018-19 to 2020-21 and they are in the process of auditing the accounts.

In view of the statement, the writ petition is closed with a direction to the CAG to audit the accounts of DJB as expeditiously as possible in accordance with the law, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P S Arora said.

The petition was filed by Delhi BJP leader Harish Khurana seeking direction to DJB to maintain proper accounts and other relevant records and prepare an annual statement of the profit and loss with proper balance sheets from 2015 onwards as prescribed under the law and to direct CAG to conduct an audit of the board.

Responding to the petition, DJB said it was making every effort to ensure that all final statements and balance sheets were duly prepared and audited in the interest of transparency and compliance with the law.

It termed the petition to be politically motivated and said the allegations levelled against it were “false, frivolous and vexatious”.

CAG has also told the high court that there is no negligence on its part as accounts were not provided for auditing.

It had said that it made several correspondences for seeking accounts for audit from DJB and the Delhi government but as accounts were not made available, the audit could not be accomplished.

The petition said it has been clearly stated in response to the RTIs of May 11, May 24 and July 22, 2021 that the copy of the balance sheet for the year 2015-16 and onward is under preparation.

The plea said since the authorities have failed to perform the functions laid down under the law, the petitioner was approaching the court. It is mandatory to maintain financial accounts and conduct an annual audit of the accounts in order to ascertain effective functioning of the state and local bodies.

Maintaining financial accounts and conducting an annual audit of the accounts help to secure accountability, transparency of the state and local bodies’ functioning towards the general public, the plea said.