New Delhi, Apr 27: The Comptroller and Auditor General has pulled up the External Affairs Ministry for "irregularities" committed by Indian missions abroad resulting in unauthorised expenditure running into several crores. Notwithstanding earlier audit observations and instructions, the embassies in Athens and Paris and the consulate-general in Birmingham continued to disregard them on the issue of employment of locally-recruited personnel, the CAG said in its report to parliament. The embassies in Belgrade, Brussels, Moscow and Rome also employed staff paid from contingencies unauthorisedly for work of a regular nature for prolonged periods in violation of the rules and regulations, it observed. "These irregularities resulted in these missions and posts incurring expenditure aggregating Rs.5.99 crore unauthorisedly," it said. The Indian embassy in Moscow topped the list with Rs 178 lakh followed by the CGI in Birmingham with Rs 1.77 crore and the Paris mission with Rs 1.15 crore. Powers delegated to the heads of missions and posts for engagement of staff paid from contingencies are subject to the conditions that this is for only group 'D' (class IV) personnel, work for which they are employed should not be of a regular nature and they should not be employed against vacant posts.
These persons should not be employed for over six months and not entitled to earned leave, bonus and increments and paid wages equal to one-thirtieth of the minimum of the scale of pay prescribed for the corresponding local posts for each day of their engagement. Bureau Report