New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday said it will get the PMCARES, set up in 2020, audited by the CAG if the party comes to power in 2024 and alleged that the fund lacked transparency and had a conflict of interest.
“There is zero accountability in the PMCARES fund, there is no audit, no transparency, and there is a conflict of interest. It is a fraud and a farce. If we come to power, we will get the fund audited by the CAG,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.
“We demand that the fund should disclose the details of the donors and those who receive grants on a monthly basis and it should be made open to CAG and RTI Act. If this is not possible, the government should at least bring out a white paper on the PMCARES. The basis on which grants are made should be explained,” he said.
According to Singhvi, the government had earlier said that the fund did not come under the RTI Act as it was not a public authority and recently told the Supreme Court in an affidavit that the fund need not be audited as it did not receive any support from the Union Budget.
“But that is wrong. The fund has collected around Rs 5000 crore. Out of this, around 40 percent is from smaller government companies but 60 percent is from PSUs like ONGC, NTPC, Power Grid Corporation, known as the Navratnas. There may be no budgetary support that is approved by the Parliament but the contributions from the PSUs, who are the major donors, are also taxpayers’ money. So, what is the argument here?” said Singhvi.
Also read: PM CARES Fund not of govt, third party info can't be revealed under RTI, Delhi HC told
“The PMCARES receives funds under the official seal of the Prime Minister but it is not open to any kind of scrutiny. This is a conflict of interest. The issue here is, can the executive government raise large sums of money without legislative sanction or budgetary approval,” he said. Singhvi, who is a senior Supreme Court lawyer, further said that while the PM Relief Fund, the National Disaster Relief Fund, or the CM’s Relief Fund were subject to scrutiny, the PMCARES was opaque.
“The head of the executive government is doing it himself without even a notification. If a non-BJP chief minister had set up a similar CMCARES and collected even 1/1000th of the PMCARES, the CBI, ED, and Income Tax would have reached there,” he said. The Congress leader alleged that the PMCARES functioning was secret.
“The whole thing is shrouded in secrecy. Recently, a two-judge bench of the top court dealt with the issue. One of them (Justice Ravindra Bhatt) was of the opinion that the PMCARES should come under the RTI Act but the other one (Justice Sunil Gaur) differed. The issue was then referred to a larger bench with three judges. But the issue has not been taken up for long. The fund has been camouflaged as a government entity where the Union home minister is also a trustee but is termed as no public authority. I would urge the top court to resolve the matter at the earliest,” Singhvi added.
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