India News | AP CMO Bars Money Matters in CM's Reviews
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. : The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's Office has directed all government departments not to raise any matter related to pending bills and other finance issues with Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy during scheduled review meetings.
Amaravati, Aug 25 (PTI): The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's Office has directed all government departments not to raise any matter related to pending bills and other finance issues with Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy during scheduled review meetings.
The WhatsApp message was sent by the Chief Minister's Principal Secretary Praveen Prakash to heads of various departments.
Also, clear instructions have been issued to the departments' heads to immediately 'erase' the PPT (PowerPoint) after the presentation is made to the Chief Minister.
The heads have also been told not to make any prints of the presentation pertaining to their respective departments to "avoid leaks".
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"We may not make any slide related to pending bills with Finance and issues with Finance Department as part of our presentation to CM," Praveen wrote in the communication.
Praveen specified that only "feedback on schemes and modifications in existing strategies in implementation" should be discussed during the review meetings.
"Issues related to finance could be raised separately with the officials of the CMO or the Chief Minister,” the Principal Secretary added.
Bureaucrats feel that the CMO official's communication seeks to undermine the very purpose of a "review".
"Issues related to finance or legal are the crux of any review meeting the Chief Minister conducts. Without that, what's the point in the review?," a senior IAS officer wondered.
Official sources said the CMO communication followed certain media reports that exposed the piling up of bills, running into thousands of crores of rupees, including those related to COVID-19 management as the Finance Department was not clearing them due to acute dearth of funds.
Non-payment of bills was the major issue said to be dominating the review meetings as the respective heads of departments were repeatedly raising SOS requests with the Chief Minister.
To avoid this and mainly prevent adverse media coverage, the CMO decided to keep the finance issue under wraps, official sources averred.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)