Two schemes namely centrally-sponsored Post-Matric Scholarship to Other Backward Classes (OBC) students and State-funded Post-Matric Scholarship to Vimukt Jati Nomadic Tribes (VJNT) students were taken up for detailed scrutiny in the Performance Audit.
Looking into the implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in scholarship schemes of Other Backward Bahujan Welfare Department of the state government for the period 2018-19 to 2020-21, the Performance Audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has observed excess scholarship disbursement of Rs 53.41 crore to institutions/students during academic year 2018-19 and 2019-20.
“Scrutiny of records revealed that the unaided private institutions were paid fees which were more than the fee fixed by the Fee Regulating Authority (FRA). The fee fixed by FRA was all-inclusive fees. However, the payment of separate fees under ‘other fees’ over and above the fee fixed by FRA resulted in excess payment of scholarship of ₹ 53.41 crore to the institutions/students for the academic year 2018-19 and 2019-20,” the audit report said.
“Scholarships approved for disbursements were plagued with significant issues such as non-disbursement of scholarships and time-lag in disbursement of scholarship from bill-generation to final credit to the applicant/college. Audit observed that the scholarship amounts were often disbursed in the years subsequent to the academic year to which the application pertained,” it further observed.
Two schemes namely centrally-sponsored Post-Matric Scholarship to Other Backward Classes (OBC) students and State-funded Post-Matric Scholarship to Vimukt Jati Nomadic Tribes (VJNT) students were taken up for detailed scrutiny in the Performance Audit.
The disbursal of scholarships is through the Maharashtra State DBT and Services (MahaDBT) portal, developed by Maharashtra Information Technology Corporation Limited (MahaIT), a GoM Company.
“Audit revealed that security certification of MahaDBT portal was not carried out through a period of more than one year had elapsed from the last certification in August 2020,” the report said. Audit observed that there was no provision of preparation of system documents and absence of the system of cross-verification of data in the MahaDBT system since it was not integrated with other state government systems which would have contributed towards improving the reliability of data.