New Delhi: Delhi government landed in trouble as an Audit team started probe into dozens of alleged illegal appointments made by the General Administration Department (GAD) during past two years. The audit started last week and may continue till the end of June.  

Soon after taking charge on February 14, 2015 AamAdmi Party government went on appointment spree where salary for consultants varied from Rs 80,000 to Rs two lakh per month. Within two years, the number of appointments reached around 50 but none of these appointments have been validated by the Lt Governor.

Shunglu committee formed by former LG Najeeb Jung raised eyebrows on huge government expenditure incurred on these appointees. Now, all these high profile appointments where the salary structure is at par with that of secretary of Delhi government, will fall under the ambit of Audit. This audit, which started on Friday, may continue for a month.

It is pertinent to mention here that the consultant in Health department in Delhi government gets Rs two lakh per months. Similarly, the advisor to chief minister Gopal Mohan gets Rs 1.5 lakh per month. Gopal Mohan joined as advisor on the monthly salary of Rs one lakh. After four months in government, his salary got revised to Rs 1.5 lakh. Few weeks later, he secured the previous four months’ arrear at the rate of Rs 1.5 lakh. This raised eyebrows in bureaucratic circles but no legal measures have been taken against such irregularities.

Probably, the intensive audit and its report will pave the way for investigations into large scale appointments made by Delhi government.

In 2016, the Delhi government had constituted a Feedback Team which was sort of intelligence gathering unit. Around 20-odd retired officials of para military forces were employed in the Feedback team which was reporting to Arwindkejriwal directly though the unit was part of vigilance department.

This team used to generate intelligence input about political rivals of kejriwal and also about top bureaucrats who were close of LG and not toeing the line of chief minister. When former LG najeeb Jung got to know about it, it raised suspicion in his mind how this kind of operation was going on without his knowledge. All the appointments in this Feedback unit were made by GAD.

The present probe will look into how these illegal appointments were made and how much money was spent on illegal intelligence network. The audit of GAD is likely to unearth massive wrongdoings and illegal expenditure of crores from government exchequer on illegal appointments