Bhubaneswar: The Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) has flagged irregularities in hiring and utilisation of aircraft and helicopter services by the Odisha government, and pointed out lack of transparency and avoidable expenditure to the tune of crores of rupees.
In its audit report for the period between April 2019 and March 2024 (during BJD govt), the CAG observed that the state government failed to secure the most competitive market rates for air services as it went ahead with the selection of a private service provider through a single-bidder process.
The audit findings showed that the government repeatedly extended its contract with a particular private service provider up to August 2024 despite absence of competitive bidding.
While Odisha had framed rules governing the use of state-owned aircraft and helicopters for official purposes, the government relied on private air service providers for official travel instead of operating its own fleet.
Describing the selection process of M/s OSS Air Management Private Limited as non-transparent, the report said the government did not ensure competitive price discovery before awarding the contract. Despite these shortcomings, the agency continued to provide aircraft and helicopter services to the state govt over several years.
The CAG also found inefficient utilisation of already contracted aircraft services. “Between January 2019 and November 2023, the state government hired chartered aircraft on 22 occasions for long-distance inter-state travel, incurring an expenditure of Rs 6.91 crore. This was done even though 751.34 committed flying hours remained unutilised in the aircraft already hired from M/s OSS during the same period,” the audit report said.
This apart, the CAG report pointed to questionable use of helicopter services. Between September 5, 2019 and March 21, 2023, the government availed helicopter services from the same vendor for 100.90 flying hours on 29 occasions to travel to destinations within Odisha that had airstrips of 3,000 feet or more. The CAG noted that such journeys could have been undertaken using the contracted aircraft.
It further pointed out that the government paid Rs 1.3 crore towards helicopter flying charges during this period, even though 566.44 unutilised committed flying hours of the hired aircraft were available.