TMC’s Saket Gokhale questions Prestone Tynsong over Smart City project again

Shillong, Sept 02: All India Trinamool Congress national spokesperson Saket Gokhale today wrote a follow-up letter to MDA’s Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong highlighting contradictory claims he made in the media about the financial irregularities in the Shillong Smart City project. Mr. Gokhale sought answers from the CAG and hit back at the NPP-led MDA govt on the basis of the response by the CAG in the letter.

Categorically refuting Prestone Tynsong’s claim, Saket Gokhale wrote, “Financial statement has to be filed with the Registrar of Companies upon completion of audit by the CAG and its adoption in the general body meeting.

Shillong Smart City was NOT restricted from filing its financial reports with the Registrar of Companies until the CAG audit is complete as claimed by you. Shillong Smart City could have filed its provisional financials for 2019-20 and 2020-21 pending the audit of the CAG which has not been done.”

Unveiling the deceptive claim of the MDA government, he questioned, “financial statements for Shillong Smart City for the year 2020-21 were audited by the CAG between 10.02.2022 and 18.02.2022 and were submitted to the Govt of Meghalaya with CAG comments on 11.05.2022. Your claim on 19th August that “book of accounts of Shillong Smart City has just been audited and confirmed by CAG is not true since the Govt of Meghalaya received the final audited report from CAG a full 3 months before your statement in May 2022.”

Dismissing the claim completely, he added, “According to the response received from the CAG, financial statements for Shillong Smart City for the year 2019-20 were audited by the CAG between 01.03.2021 and 05.03.2021 and were submitted to the Govt of Meghalaya with CAG comments last year on 27.10.2021.

Similarly, financial statements for Shillong Smart City for the year 2020-21 were audited by the CAG between 10.02.2022 and 18.02.2022 and were submitted to the Govt of Meghalaya with CAG comments on 11.05.2022. Your claim on 19th August that the “book of accounts of Shillong Smart City has just been audited and confirmed by CAG is not true since the Govt of Meghalaya received the final audited report from CAG a full 3 months before your statement in May 2022.”

Disclosing scope for further irregularities, he further added, “as revealed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its response is that Shillong Smart City Ltd. has NOT submitted its financials for the year 2021-22 to the CAG for auditing yet.” The delay in submitting the reports to CAG, as per Mr. Gokhale, is explicable and beyond any logical explanation.

Earlier, Prestone Tynsong had claimed that the financials for 2019, 2020 and 2021 had been audited and vetted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

Expressing his concern about the misutilisation of public funds, the All India Trinamool Congress National Spokesperson expressed his disgruntlement, “The utter lack of transparency surrounding the financials of Shillong Smart City Ltd, the failure of the company to meet regulatory filing rules, and the contradictory statements issued by you in the press raise serious questions of propriety and functioning of Shillong Smart City Ltd. This is even more serious considering that projects worth crores have already been awarded by the company to contractors from funds from public money received from the Govt of India as well as the Govt of Meghalaya.”

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