Misuse of Funds- BMC

BMC Funds lapsed due to non usage
By Vaidehi Sachin
It may come as a real disappointment and a frightening shock, but almost 90 per cent of the whopping Rs.69.45 crore BMC funds have lapsed due to non usage by corporators. Incidentally, all this money was supposed to be utilized for the benefit of Mumbaikars, and to improve the quality of our life here in the city. Nothing can be done now because the funds were supposed to be utilized by 31.01.2009. Any move to spend would require approval, which again is a 15 day process. The forthcoming elections have rendered the entire situation time barred.

A resolution was passed in the Improvements Committee which allows Corporators to use their funds for repairs in private layouts. This move would have benefited more than 25 lakh Mumbaikars, but local corporators never utilised this money for repairs to bad roads, leaky sewage lines and even faulty electric poles, though this may not be technically BMC’s responsibility. Each of the BMC's 227 corporators gets a constituency development fund, which is a discretionary fund of Rs 25 lakhs a year for work in their own constituencies, during each of their five years in the Municipal House. This amounts to Rs 1.25 crore over five years per corporator and Rs 283.75 crore collectively for the whole House. While it can be surmised that roughly Rs 99.3 crore was spent on drains, 22% (or roughly Rs 62.4 crore) was spent on community development and only 1% (roughly Rs 2.8 crore) on open spaces. Community development is a category that includes a wide variety of work, like building cement passages, compound walls, fencing and, most importantly, libraries, gyms, welfare centres, balwadis and so on. "This discretionary fund is a category which a corporator willingly spends. He gets funds sanctioned for, say, building a welfare centre or a gymnasium, and before long it gets converted into something like his own personal office,'' admitted a South Mumbai corporator who did not wish to be named. “These are the places that encourage a kind of bond between contractors and the executing machinery. The ‘real’ money comes from these contractors,” an official said. “The nexus is unbreakable. They are virtually two sides of the same coin,” he noted.
“Here it’s an unwritten tripartite agreement. The corporator, BMC officials and the developer all share the riches,” sources explained. It is a lot of money, considering that the BMC has 227 corporators and everyone irrespective of their status, ruling and opposition alike, have access to the fund. The largest chunk of corporators' funds-roughly Rs 99.3 crore-went into drainage projects over the past five years. Though the spending may be indicative of the actual demands of various wards, allegations of funds being misused also indicate that while a lot of money has gone into drains, large amounts have also gone down the drain. Civic sources have said that drainage spending is an area that allows for the maximum fudging of figures. Sameer Desai, Congress corporator from Goregaon, said that contractors play a decisive role in getting corporator funds for various works. "Contractors are most willing to carry out repairs on drains. There is always a great disparity between the actual amount spent and the money allotted, as it is not possible to document the exact amount of work carried out when repairing drains,'' said Desai. While the current crop of corporators, whose five-year terms come to an end next month, have spent the most money, 35 per cent on drains, the second-biggest spending has been in a rather nondescript category called ‘community development.’ The least funds have gone into developing open spaces. The percentage-wise findings are from data collected under the Right to Information Act by the NGO Praja Foundation, which did a citywide survey of the spendings of corporators from various political parties. An RTI Activist and concerned citizen, D'Souza has written to mayor Shubha Raul to hold a workshop for all the corporators. "It is very difficult for a lay person to understand the BMC's budget. Last year, after the budget was cleared, I handed over its copies to a chartered accountant, so that he could explain the budget to me,'' he said.
Funds for a ward are provided under different heads. There is the central budget where funds are allocated for specific works to be done in a ward; the ward budget is to be utilised by the Assistant Municipal Commissioner. Besides, there is the corporator's discretionary fund of Rs 35 lakh and the BMC for the first time last year, introduced a Rs.1.5 crore Development Fund for each councilor's ward, which is to be utilised according to the directions of the corporator.
Civic officials, however, said the development fund has been used only for those works for which the corporator has given a written request and which have been approved by the Ward Committee. "The corporator should ask for details about the money spent, check the measurements and quality of work done. For instance, the thickness of a concrete road can be measured by taking sample pits, the width of the drains, into account. This will help a corporator to know if the work has been done according to the area's requirement,'' said a senior civic official. Vidya Chavan, NCP corporator from Malad, said she had asked for the details of expenses from the local ward office. "My entire budget has already been used up, but I want to know if it has really been utilised the way it should have been. Often, there is a lot of fudging of figures," she added.