Audit Reports
Civil
Report No 7 of 2016- Union Civil Performance Audit
Overview
The issue of passports to citizens is the sovereign function of the Ministry of External Affairs (Ministry). Passport Seva Project (PSP) is a Mission Mode Project undertaken on Public Private Partnership as part of the National e-Governance Plan. The PSP was aimed to deliver all passport related services to the citizens in a timely, transparent, accessible, reliable manner and in a comfortable environment.
This all India performance audit assesses the level of services provided at the national level specifically related to the citizen-centric services rendered by the Ministry. Despite many quantitative and qualitative improvements in the delivery of passport services, there were shortfalls which needed to be addressed by the Ministry. There were considerable delays in getting appointments at Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs), delay in police verification process and pendency at the postal and printing stages. The Report also brings out inconsistencies in clauses of Master Service Agreement, weak project governance structure, deviations in SLA metrics with unjustified changes and overall weak monitoring, due to which normal and tatkaal passports could not be issued within the targeted time-frame.
Chapter-I provides information on PSP and our audit approach and methodology. Chapter-II provides audit findings with respect to time taken for issue of passports. Chapter-III provides audit findings with respect to citizen services. Chapter-IV deals with audit findings on the issues of implementation of the master service agreement and Governance Structure.