“The ‘PM Cares’ Funds launched by the central government asking donations from the public in the wake of Covid-19, will supposedly be audited by two independent auditors outside the government, appointed by the chairperson, the Prime Minister himself and other trustees of the fund (senior cabinet members). The fund consists entirely of public donations and does not get any fiscal support.
According to a report by NDTV quoting sources at the CAG office, said that “Since the fund is based on donations of individuals and organizations, we have no right to audit the charitable organization”. “Unless the trustees ask us to audit, we will not be auditing the accounts,” a senior official in the CAG said.
The Central government had appealed for donations and that led to massive donations from the public. Fund also enabled micro-donations. The minimum donation accepted for the PM Cares Fund is 10rs. Barely a week after the launch of the PM Cares Fund it raised over 6,500 crores, more than what PMNRF received in 2-years. Unprecedently, the novel Fund has been opened to mobilise funds from foreign nationals also, after it was exempted from the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). Contribution receipts can be downloaded by the donors from the ‘PM CARES’ Portal itself.
“A novel public charitable trust ‘PM-CARES’ was set up in view of several spontaneous requests from India and abroad for making generous contributions to support the Government in its fight against COVID-19 on March 28. Even though such a facility has been available with the government through the Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF) since 1948. However, “The PMNRF is also not audited by C&AG office “but it has not stopped the government’s auditor from asking questions about how the money was used when it provided for relief after the 2013 Uttarakhand floods,” said the website.
Earlier, a PIL had been filed against PM CARES Fund that sought a transfer of the donations received so far in the fund to PMNRF, besides a probe into the setting up of the fund. The PIL additionally mentioned that “Improbable trust has not been created by Parliament/state legislator within Art 267 and 266(2), which deal with the contingency and Consolidated Funds of India, of the Constitution,” However, the supreme court denied any pragmatical issues in PM Cares Fund and dismissed the petition, cautioning the petitioner by saying that, “We will impose a cost on you as this is a misconceived petition. Don’t argue.”
The sketchy details are intriguing. The public charitable trust route for PM-CARES appears to be novel yet deeply questionable.
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