New Delhi, Nov 25: An initiative by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), jointly with the Directorate of Education, to audit records of Delhi’s “private, unaided and recognised” schools to check money collected in fees and contributions seems to have hit a roadblock.
Many schools are resisting the audit by taking cover behind what they call an “assurance” by the Delhi Education minister to “withdraw the order of audit”, the High Court has been told.
“As of today, not a single school has responded positively; and there are over 300 such schools,” CAG’s counsel Gaurang Kanth told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday.
Delhi’s Education Minister A S Lovely, though, denied giving schools any assurance to “withdraw” the audit exercise.
“I do not know why they (schools) say I assured them to withdraw the audit,” He told Newsline on Tuesday. “I have only assured them that they will not have both the Directorate of Education and CAG auditing them. I agree they have to run schools and cannot afford an audit every six months — one by the Directorate and the other by CAG.”
Lovely said he has already instructed the Education Secretary that the Directorate of Education will conduct the audit first. “And if the Directorate finds anything suspicious in the accounts of any school, the records will be referred to CAG for further inspection.”
But Kanth reacted saying CAG is a central authority with powers given by the Constitution. “The Delhi Education Minister has no authority to give any such assurances,” he said.
–Agencies