E-Paper
Central employment scheme figures fudged in Odisha, says CAG, seeks probe
The CAG audited the scheme for the period between 2014 and 2019 and found that 14% training and 77% placements claimed by Odisha were fabricated.
Odisha has been faulted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for failing to achieve targeted employment of youth and for inflated expenditure under the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushal Yojana (DDUGKY), run by the ministry of rural development. CAG also underlined massive irregularities in implementation of the scheme, for which the state was earlier adjudged top achiever for two consecutive years.
The DDUGKY was started by the Centre in September 2014 for imparting skills to rural youth between the ages of 15 and 35 years and giving them regular jobs and was tied into the National Rural Livelihoods Mission programme. Of the 6.28 lakh rural youths who were employed till December last year, Odisha claimed to have placed the highest number of youth--1,33,853, followed by Andhra Pradesh (67,128) and Jammu and Kashmir (60,433), according to data available on the DDUGKY website.
The CAG audited the scheme for the period between 2014 and 2019 and found that 14% training and 77% placements claimed by Odisha Rural Development and Marketing Society (ORMAS), the implementing agency of the scheme, were false and fabricated. ORMAS engaged 95 Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs), mostly private, to provide training in placement-linked skill development courses, but the CAG audit found that many of these agencies were unfit while several of them exaggerated the employment figures.
ORMAS received ₹657.90 crore during 2014-19 under DDUGKY and spent ₹568.43 crore as of March 2019 for its target of training 2.02 lakh rural youth. It claimed to have trained 1.31 lakh youth by March 2019 and placed 97,198 of these in jobs.
But the CAG audit team found that ORMAS provided undue favour to project implementing agencies by skipping the laid-down appraisal process, a crucial internal control mechanism. The PIAs were selected again and again despite a poor record of placing youth.
The audit also found that many of the PIAs, though financially ineligible, were awarded projects in violation of the laid-down procedures due to the intervention of executive director of ORMAS and secretary of panchayati raj department. Four PIAs were sanctioned five projects worth ₹102.13 crore during September 2016 to September 2018 while they were only eligible for projects worth ₹25.20 crore.
“The PIAs were selected arbitrarily without conducting mandatory qualitative assessment in terms of their financial strength, commitment to captive placement, parent company structure and core sector presence, etc., which amounted to extension of undue pecuniary benefits to certain PIAs. The PIAs misused the provisions in the DDUGKY reporting system that allowed them to revise MIS figures at their level,” the CAG audit found.
One PIA was supposed to provide overseas placements and set up a centre of excellence in Odisha. It continued to get the projects despite failing in both stated objectives. Two PIAs who claimed to have earlier provided placement to 916 and 257 candidates, respectively later revised the figures to 619 and 234 candidates respectively.
Claims by PIAs of having provided jobs to the youths also turned out to be exaggerated. CAG audit found that bank statements of several youths did not show any entry, forget salary credit. At least six bank accounts were found to be non-existent and no transactions were seen in 33 accounts. Some of the PIAs even faked ESIC numbers and salary slips of 19 candidates, who they claimed to have provided jobs.
The CAG recommended a thorough investigation of all the placement claims. “Ensure that after the verification is conducted, placement percentage is recalculated and any excess money released is recovered with penal interest,” the CAG advised.
The CAG report on DDUGKY has come at a time when the state government is under fire from opposition over lack of employment for youths. Recently, leader of opposition Pradipta Naik alleged Odisha has more than 9 lakh registered unemployed youths while thousands of people migrate to other states in search of jobs.
