Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) was forced onto the defensive on Monday after TOI’s report ‘Scrutiny Freeze: Audits Stuck For 6 Yrs in Most NMC Depts’ triggered a storm in the standing committee, with panel chairperson Shivani Dani Wakhare admitting that even successive municipal commissioners overlooked the audit process.Interacting with the media after the meeting, Dani acknowledged that internal audits in a majority of the corporation’s 22-odd departments remained pending for years and termed the situation a “serious lapse” that now needs immediate correction. Dani’s statement came amid sharp protests from opposition corporators who cited the TOI report and demanded accountability from the administration.Officially, audit department is supposed to report to the office of municipal commissioner. As the department expressed inability to approach the then municipal commissioner Abhijeet Chaudhari for almost two months with files pending, Dani said she is talking with the administration and the NMC is likely to designate additional municipal commissioner as the official reporting officer to monitor pending audits and departmental financial scrutiny. Dani said the decision is aimed at ensuring accountability and preventing further delays, especially after it came to light that several departments remained unaudited for years. The additional commissioner will be tasked with reviewing audit progress, coordinating with the audit wing, and submitting periodic reports to the standing committee so that lapses in financial oversight are addressed without further delay.Official records accessed by TOI show audits in most departments have been pending since 2018-19, effectively leaving the civic body without financial scrutiny for six consecutive years. Even in 2022-23, audits were completed in only three departments — market, enforcement and water works — raising serious questions about how expenditure, procurement and revenue collection were monitored during this period.The controversy assumes greater significance as most of the six-year period overlaps with the time when the corporation functioned under administrator rule, from March 2022 to January 2026, when there were no elected representatives to question financial decisions. Opposition members argued that the absence of audits allowed departments to continue spending without proper accountability.The issue was raised in the meeting by Congress corporators Wasim Khan and Abhijeet Jha, who demanded explanation from the administration on how Budgets were passed and works were approved without audit reports. They alleged that the delay appeared to be a deliberate attempt to shield irregularities.Dani, however, said she has already spoken to the audit officer to understand the scale of the problem and admitted that staff shortage in the audit wing was a major reason for the delay. She added that a meeting with senior officials would be held soon to regularise the audit process and clear pending reports.Leader of opposition Sanjay Mahakalkar later said the admission itself confirmed that financial oversight in the civic body had “collapsed completely”, warning that the issue could snowball into a major political controversy in the coming days.
