Nagpur: Comptroller and Auditor General of India Sanjay Murthy on Wednesday pointed out serious loopholes in the direct benefit transfer (DBT) system, saying that thousands of crores of rupees flowed into beneficiaries’ accounts without mandatory checks due to weak data integration and siled functioning within departments.“There are significant gaps in the scope of controls to prevent duplication and cross-verification of data. Government departments operate in silos to such an extent that different joint secretaries in a single department do not reference the same database,” Murthy said while addressing the first batch of IRS officers who will begin their training at the National Academy of Direct Taxes in Nagpur. “We are talking about Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and mobile-linked database connectivity. However, there is a big gap when you look at the level of maturity in which the databases are deployed, especially from the reports we produce,” he said.India is a huge nation and cannot have the same scale everywhere: CAGWe say these are all Aadhaar-based beneficiaries, but the level of deduplication or cross-database verification required by the DBT mission is missing. Yet thousands of crores are flowing into the system without basic checks in place in the financial inclusion systems,” the CAG said.Speaking to TOI about the need to bridge the huge DBT gaps, Sanjay Murthy said, “India is a huge country and we cannot have the same scale everywhere. Southern states have a head start in adopting technology, which leads to availability of more sophisticated data for exams.” It would be worthwhile to check whether basic checks and balances are followed in the implementation of a government plan, he said, adding that while the negligence may not be deliberate, there should be a certain level of accuracy in the implementation.Speaking to IRS probation officers, Murthy said his department’s officials would share their experiences with tax officials for further review. Databases of agencies such as the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the Ministry of Goods and Services Tax or a state’s integrated financial management system can be a source of information.On the social sector audit, the CAG said technology has drastically reduced the audit time and enabled completion in 45 days. Now seven of the department’s systems can be tested at the same time. The CAG, as an outsider, can access the database of different systems and correlate them, he said.
