Directorate of Information & Publicity 
DIRECTORATE OF INFORMATION AND PUBLICITY
GOVERNMENT OF NCT OF DELHI
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- Deputy CM welcomes the C&AG decision to specially audit two departments of the Delhi govt
- Manish Sisodia writes to the C&AG saying the audit will nail lies about Delhi govt ads
- Deputy CM request the C&AG to conduct a similar audit of the Central govt and other states
New Delhi: 08/06/2016
The Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Mr Manish Sisodia, on Wednesday (June 8) welcomed the decision of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) to specially audit its two departments – Public Works Department (PWD) and Department of Information Publicity (DIP).
In a letter to Mr Shashi Kant Sharma, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the deputy Chief Minister said the Delhi government would welcome a similar audit by the C&AG of all its departments.
In his letter, Mr Sisodia stated that the C&AG audit findings will nail the lies being spread by vested interests about the amount spent by the Delhi government on advertisements during the entire financial year 2015-16.
“Various kinds of misinformation are being spread about our government’s advertisement expenses. It is an outrageous lie which has been repeatedly stated that this expenditure is around Rs 500 crore, which in reality is note more than Rs 75 crore for the entire year, which I am sure will come out in your audit,”Mr Sisodia wrote.
He further stated that he was disappointed to know that the C&AG was only auditing the advertisement expenses of the Delhi Government alone. It is being portrayed as if Delhi was the only government which was placing advertisements in media platforms outside the state. C&AG is NOT auditing the advertisement expenses of either the Central Government or any other state government, Mr Sisodia wrote.
The Deputy Chief Minister reminded the C&AG of the conversation he had with the latter when they met last. “In our meeting I had brought to your attention how thousands of crores of rupees were spent by the Central Government on publicising Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Mann Ki Baat, Yoga Day, Jan Dhan Yojna, Make In India, Give Up LPG Subsidy scheme, etc. Everyone knows hardly anything has been done on any of these schemes being advertised by the Central Government and the claims being made in these ads are blatant lies. In another case, the time I met you at your office, the city – Delhi was awash with the hoardings of Haryana Chief Minister Mr. Manohar Lal announcing that his was an honest government and under him Haryana was making progress”, he wrote.
The Central Government has reportedly spent Rs 1000 Crores on advertising its second year anniversary celebrations. Advertisements were placed in all national dailies in addition to TV and Radio campaigns and it ran for more than a week celebrating PM Narendra Modi’s two years in office, the letter further stated.
What was more surprising was there was no message of public interest in these advertisements. They just carried pictures of Modiji and slogans praising him.
The Governments of Telangana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu etc. carried a massive publicity campaign across all states in India.
“Therefore, advertisement expenses of all governments is being debated nationally for last few years and thus was dealt by no less than the Supreme Court. I would be extremely grateful if you can direct the Principal Accountant Generals of other State Governments which have much larger publicity budgets than the government of Delhi to carry out a comprehensive audit of the government ad expense of their respective states,” Mr Sisodia wrote.
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