The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to expeditiously audit the accounts of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) for 2018 to 2021. The high court issued this direction while concluding plea proceedings seeking directions for an audit by the CAG. DJB’s accounts are said to have not been subject to a financial audit in the past few years.

Counsel for CAG informed the court that they have received DJB’s annual statements of accounts for 2018-19 to 2020-21 and they are in the process of auditing the accounts.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet PS Arora said that in view of the statement, the writ petition was closed and directed the CAG to audit the accounts of DJB as soon as possible in accordance with the law.

The petition, filed by Delhi BJP leader Harish Khurana, seeks directions to the DJB to maintain proper accounts and other relevant records and prepare annual profit and loss account and proper balance sheet as required by law from 2015 onwards , and directed the CAG to conduct an audit of the board of directors.

In response to the petition, DJB said it was making every effort to ensure that all final statements and balance sheets are properly prepared and audited in the interests of transparency and compliance with the law.

It called the petition politically motivated and said the allegations against it were “false, frivolous and vexatious”.

The CAG also told the High Court that it was not negligent in not providing the accounts for audit.

The company said it had written to DJB and the Delhi government several times seeking audit of its accounts, but the audit could not be completed as the accounts were not available.

The petition stated that in response to the RTIs dated May 11, May 24 and July 22, 2021, it has been made clear that copies of the balance sheet for the year 2015-16 and onwards are being prepared.

The petition states that the petitioner is approaching the court as the authorities have failed to perform their functions under the law. Financial accounts must be maintained and annual audits of the accounts conducted to determine the effective functioning of state and local agencies.

Maintaining financial accounts and conducting annual audits of the accounts helps ensure accountability and transparency of state and local agency operations to the public, the petition states.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from associated news agency – PTI)