Rs 80 lakh down the DTC drain

NEW DELHI: A government report on public undertakings has indicted Delhi Transport Corporation of wasting Rs 80 lakh by delaying in-house computerisation of employee payrolls. The corporation spent Rs 37 lakh for buying computers and accessories that were never used. It also continued to pay Rs 73,000 to a company for five years, which meant an additional expenditure of Rs 43.8 lakh.''The committee recommends department action against officers responsible for the acts and omissions,'' the report said. DTC's employee payrolls were prepared by Escorts since 1981 and store accounting and financial accounting was being done by National Council for Applied Economic Research. The corporation purchased hardware and peripherals at a cost of Rs 16.48 lakh in 1989 and installed them in one of the depots in north Delhi. ''However, none of the application, payroll system, store and financial accounting was installed in these computers,'' the report said. The DTC board had decided to stop computerisation of payroll from Escorts with effect from January 1995. It recommended that the work be carried out by the Union ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Despite the facility extended by the Union ministry, the report observed that, DTC made no effort to develop in-house computerisation and continued the payroll work through Escorts. The report states that ''lack of expertise in DTC and inexperience of Union Road Transport ministry officials to develop the in-house computerisation on a large-scale commercial application was the main reason, which prompted DTC to fall back on Escorts''.