The CBI’s case against DHFL, promoters the Wadhawan brothers, and unknown public servants for reportedly generating almost 2.6 lakh fake dwelling-loan accounts to access Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana (PMAY) rewards exposes the shortcomings in scrutiny of government schemes. The siphoning of public funds in the present instance is staggering—the total loan quantity was more than Rs 14,000 crore, of which more than Rs 11,700 crore was routed to numerous fictitious issues identified as Bandra Book Firms. That a forensic audit report, as per several reports, exposed the fraud speaks volumes about the gaps in even an Aadhaar-based verification system—PMAY, a housing loan scheme for the economically weaker sections of the population beneath which the subsidy quantity is claimed by the financing institutions, demands submission of the Aadhaar information of the beneficiary.
The failure of scrutiny mirrors that which was exposed in an investigative series by on the leakage in Jharkhand, in the centrally-funded scholarship scheme for minority students. Under the scheme, such students get registered on the internet with bank account information and Aadhaar information, amongst other documentation specifications, to get the annual scholarship quantity as per the relevant category (class-smart & boarder/day scholar) they need to have to have scored more than 50% in the college exams, and their household earnings shouldn’t exceed Rs 1 lakh per year. The scholarship quantity is straight transferred following eligibility is confirmed, the application accepted, and registration completed. However, in Jharkhand, a nexus amongst banks personnel, middle-guys, government and college authorities bilked the government of substantial amounts. Thanks to this, not only did lots of beneficiaries get only a fraction of the revenue disbursed in their name but also lots of ineligible persons—including folks in their late 20s, 30s and even one particular person in her 40s—received the scholarship. From scholarships to boarders at a college that has no boarding facility to female beneficiaries in a college that has only boys, the scam involved components that exposed the final-mile gaps of the Aadhaar-based authentication method, just as the DHFL scam has.
Lack of awareness amongst beneficiaries and the active cooperation of these who qualify for the schemes in defrauding the government is one thing that will trigger the Aadhaar authentication method to stumble. A standard earnings for the poor rather of the lots of subsidies and grants, it can be argued, can enable prevent such fraud, but if there are intermediaries, there is usually the likelihood of rent-in search of. For viewpoint, if earnings certification has to be performed by nearby government/administration, there will usually be the possibility that beneficiaries will have to spend to access the advantage.
Against this backdrop, fixing a affordable sum inside the scheme allocation for independent auditing, specifically MGNREGA-style social auditing, could probably create a method of scrutiny that could pass muster—these might not be a foolproof verify, but they can enable substantially curb diversion of funds by means of beneficiary verification, authentication of the beneficiary getting the advantage due, and so forth.