Sloppy work on APDRP slammed by CAG

New Delhi, May 20 (UNI) The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pulled up the Centre for the dismal performance of its key reform tool in the power sector, the Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP) and its failure to achieve its objectives.

APDRP was launched with the primary objective of reduction in the Aggregate Technical and Commercial Losses (AT&C) and improvement in the revenue realistion by state utilities.

With a total outlay of Rs 40,000 crore, APDRP had Rs 20,000 crore each for investment and incentive components for the 10th Five Year Plan, the CAG said in its latest report.

As of March 2006, the Ministry had released a total amount of Rs 6,131.70 crore on 583 projects involving a total project cost of Rs 19,180.46 crore, of which the reported utilisation was Rs 9,507.20 crore including counter part funding.

The primary objective of reducing AT&C by nine per cent had not been acheived and, the report indicted the Government on the counts of serious deficiencies in system metering (in particular Distribution Transformer metering) and consumer metering.

The programme had envisaged 100 per cent metering of feeders, Distribution Transformers (DTs) and consumer connections.

The audit showed the progress in metering of DTs, which is an essential tool to control AT&C losses, was not adequate as only three states had shown 80 and 100 per cent metering.

As regards feeder and consumer metering, desptite the Ministry's report showing a high percentage of metering in most states, audit examination at the state level showed significant deficiencies, in addition to misreporting of data on installation meters.

There were significant deficiancies in the quality and reliability of power supply, which was targeted under APDRP. The number of feeder tripplings and duration of outage, as well as failure rate of DTs, was much higher than permissible in most states, the report adds.

MORE UNI