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    Union minister orders legal audit of govt cultural institutes

    Synopsis

    The ministry presides over several autonomous institutes and attached and subordinate offices which include leading national academies, museums and cultural centres, among others.

    Prahlad-PatelAgencies
    Patel has stated in the communication that the prevalent scale of administrative and financial impropriety is a matter of ‘serious concern’.
    Alarmed at the scale of administrative and financial irregularities and serious violation of rules across several organisations under the culture ministry, Union minister Prahlad Patel is learnt to have ordered an immediate comprehensive ‘legal auditing’ of these organisations.

    A communication issued by the new culture minister’s office on July 17 has directed all divisions of the ministry to take immediate steps to begin the legal auditing of the various departments and several autonomous cultural institutions under the culture ministry.

    The ministry presides over several autonomous institutes and attached and subordinate offices which include leading national academies, museums and cultural centres, among others.

    Patel has stated in the communication that the prevalent scale of administrative and financial impropriety is a matter of ‘serious concern’. Considering such grave irregularities being reported in leading institutes of national importance, it is necessary to initiate a legal auditing of these and the same should be done under the existing rules, he added. He has observed that it was a matter of concern that no previous audit conducted in the ministry and at these institutions, had so far reported any flagrant violations there. Patel has therefore specified that the auditing exercise be conducted afresh with new legal firms or auditors.

    While ET made several attempts to reach minister Patel and the culture ministry for their views on the issue, there was no response to the queries until press time.

    Although it is not clear which institutions the minister has referred to in his observations where financial and administrative irregularities have been observed, the ministry has run into controversy with several prominent institutes over the years.

    Lalit Kala Akademi has had a scandalous past with missing paintings, litigation, government takeover and even the involvement of the CBI on various occasions.

    Kalakshetra’s makeover had also run into auditing trouble in 2017. Irregularities have been reported from various centres for cultural resources and training (CCRT) and zonal cultural centres under the ministry.

    The ministry has ordered a probe into reports of large scale nexus involving thefts of rare manuscripts from the Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute last year.

    The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has routinely pulled up autonomous institutes under the ministry for improper accounting. The Modi government, in its previous stint, had even attempted to forge newer terms of agreement with various autonomous bodies under the culture ministry, to bring in greater accountability.


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