Arbitrary appointments by State Government to the Board

Delayed and faulty constitution of Statutory Board

CAG’s Audit also kept out

Financial accountability of the board ignored

BHOPAL: The Comptroller and Auditor General ( CAG ) flayed Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government for its “dual” stand on Vyapam and said that auditors were stopped from accessing records on grounds that ‘it was not a government body’.“While the MP government disowned and distanced itself from Vyapam, it was in full control of the examination board for all practical purposes”, audit watchdog observed.“The shadowy control (on Vyapam) has led to a situation where there was a severe erosion in the credibility of exams conducted by board,” CAG reported in its latest report tabled on Friday (on general and social sectors), government of Madhya Pradesh , for the year ended March 31, 2016. Report was presented by accountant general Saurabh K Mallick.“The board was constituted with confusion over its status which persists till date. The state government in the notification of 1982 declared that it would not be responsible for any act of Vyapam. However, the status of Board as a government department was accepted thereafter, which was also confirmed by the law department of MP during various inter-departmental deliberations,” says the report.The government did not allow us access of Vapam records in 2015 and 2016, stating that it was not a government body, added CAG.The posts of chairman, director and controller in the board were filled by the transfer of state government officers and funds of the government were utilised at the instance of the government.Despite this, the government did not frame any rules, regulations regarding conduct of board, conduct of examination, conduct of business of board, collection and deposit of fees and financial procedures to be allowed.“The confusion over the status of Vyapam was allowed to continue and the arrangement between the state government and the board remained flexible,”In 2015, Chouhan had promised that government will take the ordinance route to rechristen and overhaul the tainted examination and recruitment agency, after it had failed to bring a bill in the monsoon session of the state assembly. Ruckus over the Vyapam scam had forced the Speaker to adjourn the assembly sine die.The appointments of director and controller in the Board were made by systemic subversion of rules resulting in undue favour being shown to certain individuals. Dr Yogesh Uprit and Dr Pankaj Trivedi were appointed Director and Controller respectively directly on orders of the then Minister in contraventions of the rules.The delay in establishment of statutory board defeated the purpose to provide greater authority and more credibility to the Professional Examination Board in Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh State Legislature passed Madhya Pradesh Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal Adhiniyam, 2007 (MPPEB Act 2007) in August 2007. However, the state government established the statutory board under this Act only in March 2016, i.e., with a delay of more than eight years.Transfer of government recruitment function, a core responsibility to a board meant for conduct of professional examinationsThe recruitment examinations for state level posts were transferred to the board in April 2003 in an unprecedented manner. There was no augmentation of manpower/established system to handle the new function. This hampered conduct of examination by board. Conduct of recruitment examination, a primary function of the government to ensure free and fair recruitment to its own services, which was till now being conducted by Public Service Commission/Government Departments, was jettisoned in favour of an institution which was neither statutory nor independent, nor functioned under well laid out regulations and went against well established judicial and constitutional pronouncements.The state government did not take any remedial measures by framing rules/regulations to prevent the irregularities even after Vyapam reported some cases of irregularities in conduct of examination and despite the objection of an incumbent Minister of the Government. There was no evidence that the State Government ensured the integrity of IT based system used in the examination conducted by the Board. Early on the Government decided that the audit would not be entrusted to CAG as it was presumed that the ‘AG was very busy’. AG was not consulted in the matter.The fund of Board was kept outside government account and it was not subjected to budgetary control of State Legislature. The Board, however, had no hesitation in transferring Rs 13.75 crore of Board Fund to other organisations for activities not connected with Vyapam.