BBMP’s audit objections surge amid lack of elected body

Bengaluru: The number of audit objections and the recoverable amounts from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have been steadily rising since the 2020-21 financial year, a period that also marks the absence of an elected body, official records show. This trend indicates a lack of accountability among various levels of the civic body, contributing to the ongoing deterioration of the city's infrastructure.

As per the audited accounts for 2022-23, which is being made available only recently, the auditors have raised objections to the payments amounting to Rs 1,820.61 crore and recommended the recovery of Rs 471.13 crore. These figures have steadily escalated in recent years, with a significant spike since 2019-2020.

While the councilors are often viewed as villains, the absence of an elected body in the BBMP since September 2020 may have been a contributing factor to these growing irregularities, citizen groups say. 

The auditors have highlighted the discrepancies under two categories. While the 'audit objections' are payments made by deviating the standard operating procedures (SOPs), the 'recovery' section is a far serious irregularity where the payments are made without adhering to the required rules and regulations.

Among the many troubling instances highlighted by the auditors include excess and fake billing, not following tender processes and, in some cases, the officers have not deposited the money collected from the public.  

The audit of 2022-23 shows that the Town Planning section of South Zone collected Rs 37.04 crore for various building plan approvals but deposited only Rs 13.68 crore to the BBMP's bank account. The auditors also revealed that the BBMP has not collected a total of Rs 269 crore from advertisers who are putting up advertisements on skywalks (Rs 58.21 crore) bus shelters (Rs 175 crore), above public toilets (Rs 3.49 crore) and even at Hebbal flyover (Rs 32.43 crore). 

In one case, the audit found that BBMP engineers used the same job code for works at two separate locations — Shettihalli and Kodigehalli — resulting in separate bills totalling Rs 13.51 lakh. There was one instance in Gandhinagar where the second lowest bidder was given the work instead of the lowest bidder. At Konena Agrahara Park, the BBMP engineers claimed development work on 900 sqm whereas the the actual park size was only 368 sqm. 

The audit has raised plenty of instances where the BBMP engineers have not shown any proof of work for raising bills. 

This could perhaps be the tip of the iceberg. This is because the auditors have pointed out that the BBMP has not been cooperative during the auditing process, citing frivolous reasons for delays and consistently denying access to necessary documents and information.