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CAG: Indifferent ELCOT lost Rs 1.07 crore in potential rent
The Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu’s (ELCOT) inability to maintain its building in a rentable condition in a prime business and IT locality in Chennai resulted in the corporation losing a potential revenue of Rs 1.07 crore.
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Chennai
In addition, it incurred wasteful expenditure of Rs 13.95 lakh, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s annual report said. The CAG said that the corporation purchased land and building at Tiruvanmiyur at an estimated Rs 2.84 crore in September 2007 for constructing its own building in future.
While awaiting construction of the building, ELCOT in March 2008 leased it for a monthly rent of Rs 3.54 lakh. When the lessee vacated the building in June 2010, it was not leased out again till June 2016. Though a party volunteered to take it for Rs 2.02 lakh per month rent, the proposal was not accepted as it was lower than the rent paid by the earlier tenant.
Then the corporation without assigning any reason stopped advertising the premises for rent. The audit also observed that though the building was situated in a prime locality surrounded by commercial and IT companies, ELCOT failed to maintain the premises for commercial usage. Not only did ELCOT fail to pay the electricity charges on the due dates resulting in the power being disconnected as on May 2012.
The building was also surrounded by bushes and thorns. This was revealed by the PWD report. ELCOT also did not provide any reason for such non-maintenance.
The building being idle for more than 6 years resulted in a potential revenue loss of Rs 1.07 crore, while ELCOT spent another Rs 13.95 lakh toward security of the premises between July 2010 and May 2016, which could have been avoided if the premises had been rented out. However, ELCOT was able to rent it out for only Rs 1.63 lakh, which was way below the Rs 3.58 lakh per month fixed by the PWD.
‘Rs 1.22 crore wasted in mining pink granite’
The CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) pulled up the state government’s TN Minerals and Mining Department for undertaking mining and marketing a new variety of granite without checking its viability.
The department conducted a geological study in June 2002, which revealed extensive reserves of pink granite at Vattamalai in Tirupur district. However, it was suggested that this variety’s marketability be first studied through a polished sample. The state government granted a 30-year quarrying licence to the company, which decided at a review meeting in August 2013 to get samples from the quarry and examine their marketability before commencing quarrying.
TN Minerals divisional office in September 2013 was also of the view that quarrying should start only after the marketability of the new product was first tried out as it was a new material in the granite market. But, without conducting a market study, the then MD ordered commencement of quarrying resulting in 96.80 cubic metres of granite being mined at an estimated cost of Rs 1.22 crore between February and April 2014.
In the meantime, when the department invited tenders between October 2013 and August 2014 for sale of this granite there was no response from buyers. The TN Minerals divisional office was told by buyers that this granite variety had certain round spots, which would not sustain the polishing process and hence it was felt that operating the quarry would not be economically viable. The quarry’s closure was ordered on August 14, 2014. There was no response for the tenders called on two occasions in July and October 2015.
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