Need for transparency: On PM CARES Fund (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Governance 
Prelims level: PM CARES
Mains level: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability

Context:

• There is something about the nature of the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund that has led to demands for its scrutiny.
• Recently, Supreme Court has rejected a writ petition calling for a funds diversion from this fund to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). 
• It also denied the petitioners’ demand that the “public charitable trust” be audited by the CAG. 
• The larger questions remain about its need, operation and its persisting lack of transparency. 

Transparency or accountability:

• A three-judge Bench asserted that no exception could be taken to the constitution of yet another public charitable trust at a time of a raging COVID-19 pandemic. 
• But the need for a fresh trust when there is the PM’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) with a substantial corpus in place is not clear. 
• Since the PM CARES Fund existed independent of budgetary support or government money, the Court’s reasoning was that there was “no occasion” for a CAG audit. 
• However, the concern is not about the legal basis or the absence of a CAG audit, or whether it is superfluous or indeed essential. 
• As responses to RTI queries on the Fund reveal, the government is not forthcoming on questions on its transparency or accountability. 
• Queries on the trust deed for the Fund, and its creation and operation have been summarily dismissed by arguing that the Fund was not a “public authority” even though the PM is its ex-officio chairman and three Cabinet ministers are its trustees. 
• And, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had also treated it as a fund set up by the Centre.

Rising infections and deaths:

• Since the trust was created, lakhs of public and private sector employees have donated a day’s salary to it, with some of them claiming that this deduction was done without their explicit consent.
• Many public sector units and corporate entities too have made donations because of a proviso allowing uncapped corporate donations that would qualify as corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure. 
• Earlier, a government panel had rightly suggested that the double benefit of tax exemption would be a “regressiveincentive”. 
• Thus far, the exact amount of donations and a clear break-up of the expenditure from the fund have not been provided. 
• Only an announcement that in May that ₹3,100 crore had been sanctioned from it to be spent on ventilators, migrant worker welfare and vaccine development. 
• States have led the response to COVID-19 and their resources have increasingly been stretched by the continuing rise in infections and deaths, which have crossed the 2.8 million and 54,000 mark, respectively. 
• At the very least, RTI requests that seek to understand how funds are being received and how they are being disbursed so far should be seen as legitimate. 

Way forward:

• Also, more needs to be done by the government to publicise donations to the more accountable NDRF which allows for a transfer of funds to States.
• The government must not stallqueries related to the operation of the PM CARES Fund.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1). Consider the following statements:

1. An IAS officer serving in cadre (state) should submit his/her resignation to the chief secretary of the state. 
2. An IAS officer who is on central deputation is required to submit his/her resignation to the Cabinet secretary. 

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: A

Mains Questions:

Q.1). What are the key features of PM CARES fund? As PM CARES fund is different from National Disaster Response Fund, do you think the apex court ruling is justified? Comment.