DAE failed to create land transfer policy for 14 years, CAG finds

This audit examined the compliance of transactions for eight Scientific and Environmental Ministries/Departments of the Union Government, including their autonomous bodies and central public sector enterprises, for the year ended March 2024.

Who it concerns: Union Government Scientific and Environmental Ministries/Departments (including Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy).

What the auditor found

• Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) lacked a comprehensive land transfer policy for over 14 years despite Cabinet Secretariat directions, leading to non-uniform practices and loss of potential revenue from delayed lease renewals.
• DAE had not formulated Uniform Departmental Pool Residential Accommodation Rules in over 71 years, resulting in inconsistent allotment and fee recovery practices.
• Tata Memorial Centre (under DAE) lacked an approved IT Policy, IT Steering Committee, and Data Retention Policy, with weak password controls and no cryptographic security for storing passwords and patients' Aadhaar card numbers.
• Tata Memorial Centre did not execute formal Service Level Agreements with vendors, leading to continued payments despite unresolved technical issues.
• Directorate of Construction, Services and Estate Management incurred avoidable expenditure of ₹1.45 crore on elevator component replacements due to non-completion of installation sites for over seven years.
• International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials incurred unfruitful expenditure of ₹1.52 crore (including ₹1.08 crore procurement cost) because a laser welding machine remained unutilised due to lack of required infrastructure.
• Department of Biotechnology made irregular payments of ₹67.48 lakh as travelling allowance for newly appointed scientists joining duty.
• Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change incurred unauthorised expenditure of ₹1.99 crore on a Photo Gallery construction and excess expenditure of ₹1.86 crore on Technology Development Centres.
• Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd incurred unfruitful expenditure of ₹5.07 crore.
• CAG recommended DAE formulate a comprehensive land transfer policy and Uniform Residential Accommodation Rules, and Tata Memorial Centre implement IT security policies and Multi-Factor Authentication.

Also in the document

• CAG found that DAE had not formulated a common land transfer policy for more than 14 years despite explicit directions from the Cabinet Secretariat in 2011.
• CAG noted that DAE had not formulated Uniform Departmental Pool Residential Accommodation Rules in over 71 years since its establishment in 1954.
• CAG reported that Tata Memorial Centre did not maintain cryptographic security while storing passwords and patients’ Aadhaar card numbers.
• CAG identified unfruitful expenditure of ₹5.07 crore in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy sector.