NEW DELHI: On Monday, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta presented a CAG audit report in the Assembly that uncovered irregularities in the registration of construction workers. The report indicated insufficient spending on their welfare, even though the state government had more than ₹3,500 crore available from 2019 to 2023.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India’s report on ‘Welfare of Building and Other Construction Workers’ (BOCW) examined the preceding four years under the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
The report found that the Delhi government lacked reliable data on the number of BOCWs, with the Welfare Board managing to provide a complete database for only 1.98 lakh out of 6.96 lakh workers purportedly registered.
Among 1.98 lakh beneficiaries of various welfare schemes, 1.19 lakh were associated with 2.38 lakh images, indicating potential issues with “ghost” worker registrations.
The identification of duplicate images, images lacking faces, and multiple registrations for the same person highlighted significant “loopholes” in the registration process, according to the CAG report.
In terms of renewal rates for BOCW registrations, Delhi lagged considerably with only a 7.3% renewal rate compared to the national average of 74%.
As of March 2023, the Welfare Board for BOCWs had total funds of ₹3,579.05 crore.
The report indicated a notable discrepancy between the cess amounts collected according to the records of cess collectors and the Board’s own records, with differences totaling ₹204.95 crore over four years that remained unresolved.
Registered companies are required to pay a cess of 1% of the construction cost to the Board for various welfare schemes for BOCWs.
Moreover, the Delhi government has failed to uphold a reconciled database for assessed, collected, and remitted cess, lacking a systematic approach to determine the amount owed and ensure timely collection.
The report also identified issues of incorrect assessments and the shortfall in cess collection.
Expenditure on welfare schemes was only between 9.53% and 11.33% of total receipts, except in 2021-22 when ex gratia payments were made to BOCWs during the Covid pandemic.
