Audit Reports
Commercial
Report No.21 of 2019 - Construction of toilets in schools by CPSEs, Union Government (Commercial)
Overview
Audit Report No 21 of 2019 contains the results of compliance audit of construction of toilets in schools by CPSEs under Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan (SVA).
53 CPSEs participated in SVA out of which, seven CPSEs (PFC, REC, PGCIL, NTPC, NHPC, ONGC and CIL) under Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal and Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, which constructed more than 5,000 toilets each and 1,30,703 toilets in total, at a cost of Rs 2,162.60 crore, were selected for audit. Audit examined the records pertaining to construction of toilets by these seven CPSEs and also conducted physical survey of a sample of 2,695 toilets across 2,048 schools in 15 States to assess availability and usability of the toilets. During audit survey, audit found the cases of non-existing/partially constructed toilets, toilets constructed but not in use, lack of running water inside toilets, non-provision of hand washing facilities, defective construction of toilets, damaged/overflowing of leach pit and non -maintenance of toilets.
Audit noticed that the CPSEs were required to conduct the survey in the identified schools before starting the construction of toilets. But while PFC and CIL (Subsidiary SECL) did not conduct survey all other CPSEs did not survey all the schools identified by them. The selected CPSEs constructed only 65 per cent of toilets on their own and offloaded the remaining 35 per cent to state government agencies, as the work was lagging behind.
CPSEs declared the completion of all toilets by August 2015, though only 33 per cent of toilets were completed (for which completion certificates were provided to Audit) by that date. Further, MHRD prescribed standard design of toilets and allowed flexibility in designing the toilets for improvement, but four CPSEs (NTPC, PGCIL, REC and CIL) did not provide basic amenities at the design stage itself and the five CPSEs (NTPC, PGCIL, PFC, REC and CIL) constructed about 40 per cent of their toilets by using prefab technology, even though the Administrative Ministries and MHRD had specifically barred them from using prefab technology.