An audit conducted by the Comptroller & Auditor General on the implementation of schemes under the Universal Services Obligation fund has concluded that funds are under utilised and misused in a number of cases.

For example, random tele-calling of village public telephones across seven circles by auditors revealed that only half of the phones supported by the USO fund were working. In another instance, it was found that the number of rural fixed line telephones for which subsidy was sought by telecom operators far exceeded the actual number of households in the villages.

Three circles

“In three circles (Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka), subsidy amount of ₹20.34 crore was allowed for 32,759 multiple connections in the name of one person/address and for more than one member of a family at the same address,” the draft audit report said.

“Absence of any rural Rural Household Direct Exchange Lines holder in the declared villages and provision of installation in non-rural areas noticed by audit goes to prove that the operator had provided patently fictitious connections and got benefits of the USO fund subsidy by using apparently fraudulent means,” the report added.

While the document seen by BusinessLine does not name any specific operator, it has blamed the USO fund administrator for failing to monitor the alleged fraud.

The Department of Telecom was given an opportunity to respond to these findings in an exit conference with the Secretary, DoT. But the CAG has not found the DoT’s position tenable. The auditor will now publish its final report.

‘Not fully utilised’

The audit has also reiterated that the fund is not being fully utilised. Compared to a total collection of ₹58,579 crore, only ₹ 17,947 crore has been disbursed.

The DoT has defended this by saying that the Ministry of Finance has not accepted its repeated request for higher allocation of funds.

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