16,000 artworks not relocated due to vacant NGMA posts: CAG

The culture ministry's inability to fill up key posts in the National Gallery of Modern Art for over a decade has resulted in failure of relocation of over 16,000 works of art and idling of investment of Rs 3.81 crore since March, 2014, a CAG report said today.
The Comptroller and Auditor General report stated that 16,582 works of art remained in the NGMA despite a state-of- the-art storage system approved by the ministry of culture in 2013.
In October 2011, the NGMA proposed to set up a "state- of-the-art storage system" citing the inadequacy of arrangements for handling and retrieval of art works in its collection.

The gallery got an approval to establish the system on July, 2013 and the work was completed in March 2014.
"NGMA in February 2016 attributed the failure to shift the collections to the fact that the posts of deputy curator and curator of the art collection were lying vacant for the past 10 years," the CAG said.
The auditor further observed that though the NGMA has filled up the vacant posts in August 2016, the ministry has taken no decision on the security report which was filed after the CISF inspected the security arrangements last year.

In the case, the culture ministry failed to monitor a project resulted in blockage of funds and loss of interest due to non-adherence to financial rules, the report stated.

In March 2012, the ministry released a grant in aid of Rs 2.14 crore to government of Goa to beautify the Rabindra Bhawan complex with the requirement that it was to be completed in six months.
The ministry however failed to monitor the project, the CAG said.
The state government informed in September 2014 that due to technical difficulties it could not utilise the fund and refunded the same in March 2016.
Since the ministry failed to incorporate the interest clause in the grant sanction letter interest of Rs 0.86 crore could not be levied.
"The ministry is required to put a system in place for better monitoring of projects for which grants have been released, so that funds are not unnecessarily blocked," the report said.