By Prashant K. Nanda,
New Delhi, May 17 (IANS) Expensive equipment imported by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) worth Rs. 94.2 million (nearly $2.3 million) is lying unused across the country resulting in loss of revenue, according to a government audit.
According to a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, instruments purchased by several laboratories of CSIR are either not installed or lying unused due to lack of repairs.
Apart from the above equipments costing Rs. 94.2 million, another 25 equipments costing Rs. 84.1 million (nearly $2 million) were installed in several laboratories of CSIR after costly delays ranging between one and three years.
Terming it injudicious planning for procurement, the report said an equipment costing Rs. 8.53 million was procured by National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, under the modernization plan but did not earn any revenue for four years.
National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore, signed an agreement with the Indian Air Force in April 2002 for the ‘total life enhancement of an aircraft through full scale fatigue testing’ project. For this purpose, NAL imported a smart control system machine at a cost of Rs. 4.5 million in July 2002.
“The equipment was installed and commissioned in 2002. Scrutiny revealed that after procurement, the equipment was not used by the NAL at all. On this being pointed out, NAL stated in July 2006 that the equipment would be used after receiving an aircraft at the end of 2007.
“Thus the equipment procured at a cost of Rs. 45.97 lakh remained unutilised even after four years resulting in non generation of ECF (external cash flow),” CAG said.
The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, which procured Marine Magnetometer worth Rs. 1.6 million, is also lying unutilised for more than four years and thus “did not contribute to the generation of external cash flow”. The audit said though the target was to achieve Rs. 3 million, yet non-utilisation resulted in zero revenue generation.
The Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee, had imported Multi Channel Central Recording System (MCCR) and Forced Balanced Accelerometers (FBA) from the US costing around Rs. 2.39 million but failed to install it due to defect in the equipments.
“The CBRI failed to effectively pursue the replacement with the suppliers for more than three years. Therefore both MCCRS and FBA purchased between August 1999 and February 2002 remained uninstalled,” the report said.
The Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) in Durgapur too procured a Universal Milling Machine and accessories at a cost of Rs. 1.67 million but due to non-cooperation of the supplier the machine could not be installed.
“Thus the equipment remained idle for more tha three years due to failure of the CMERI to effectively pursue the matter,” the report added.
Similarly, Regional Research Laboratory, Bhopal, Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Structural Research Engineering Research Centre kept eight equipment costing Rs. 14.7 million in defective conditions.
The report also pulled up the CSIR by underlining that its laboratories purchased equipment under modernisation programme to earn revenue thorough their utilisation. Therefore these laboratories need to install them without any delay.
“It was observed that there were delays in installation of 25 equipments in 11 of the 32 laboratories of CSIR for a period exceeding one year. The delay in 10 cases ranged between 24 months to 45 months broadly due to the failure of the laboratories in arranging the infrastructure for installation of the equipment, non-acquisition of spare parts, accessories etc,” it added.
CSIR, India’s premier scientific body was entrusted with the responsibility of conducting research and development, and improve the indigenous technologies thorough its 32 laboratories across the country.