Once among India’s most popular anti-corruption crusaders, Arvind Kejriwal failed to check corruption that took place right under his very nose.

A Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report, tabled in the Delhi Assembly on Tuesday, has highlighted “lapses” in the public distribution system. The report reveals that eight vehicles that ferried 1,589.92 quintals of food articles to fair price shops had registration number of buses, scooters, motorcycles and three-wheelers—findings that may well force Delhi to initiate an inquiry against its own department.

In more embarrassment for the Delhi government, the CAG has found that the food and supplies department did not independently verify the eligibility of ration card applicants. It also revealed that hundreds of registered phone numbers, that received alerts about ration shipments, were not that of real beneficiaries but belonged to licence holders of Fair Price Shops (FPS). This has raised doubts about the authenticity of the reported transportation of Specified Food Articles (SFAs) from godowns to the FPSes.

The CAG reports that during the test check of 207 vehicles used to transport SFAs from Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns to FPS, ten vehicles were registered with other government departments and 42 were found not registered with the transport department at all.

Shockingly, 1,589.92 quintals of SFAs to FPSs were transported on eight vehicles that had the registration numbers of buses, scooter, motorcycle, and three-wheelers.

“This gives rise to doubt whether the reported transportation of SFAs had actually taken place and the possibility of pilferage could not be ruled out,” the CAG has observed in its report.

The department, in its reply, has said that this could be the result of a typographical error. However, the CAG has said the “reply is not tenable” as the possibility of entering “wrong vehicle numbers that exactly match with other vehicles are remote and the department should have investigated the matter”.

Of course, it was Kejriwal himself who first tweeted about irregularities or a possible corruption in the PDS. Delhi finance minister Manish Sisodia tabled the report in the Assembly and pointed at the list of irregularities. But does that absolve the Aam Aadmi Party-led government of all responsibility?

It is important to note that the list of irregularities specified by the CAG doesn’t end with the transportation aspect. By March 2017, Delhi government’s food and supplies department had issued 19,40,159 National Food Security (NFS) cards, covering 72,48,385 beneficiaries. The department failed to verify the eligibility of these NFS card holders.

According to the rules, any person who owns a non-commercial vehicle, or is a taxpayer, or owns properties in colonies under category A to E in Delhi or is already a beneficiary of any other ration scheme, cannot get an NFS card. But the department showed an inability to ascertain who were eligible for these cards. Hence, leaving the scope for discrepancies – if any – to continue.

The CAG has pointed out that NFS card holders in Delhi could also be holding cards in the states from where they come. “The department allowed persons having Aadhaar issued by other states to become NFS beneficiary in Delhi without verifying their NFS status in their home state,” reads the CAG Delhi 2016-2017 report.

The agency’s findings further reinforce the need to verify the card holders since those not eligible for the NFS were also enjoying the benefits.

“Total 792 FPS licence holders were also NFS beneficiaries and were getting SFAs,” the report states. The FPS licence is awarded to those having a sound financial position.

Large-scale pilferage is being suspected of having taken place because in at least 2,453 cases the mobile numbers of the beneficiaries actually belonged to FPS licence holders and not actual beneficiaries of the NFS.  This means the SMSes that were sent out to track the transportation of the SFAs were not being sent to the real beneficiaries.

Even the allocation of SFAs was not accurately depicted on website portal, the CAG report claims.

Questions related to the accuracy of data of beneficiaries and SFAs have also been raised. In several instances, columns such as names of mother and father were found to be blank or filled with invalid names – that is filled with ABCD. Some were filled with invalid mobile numbers and the details of dispatch/receipt of SFAs were also found to be inaccurate. Not only this, the CAG report also mentions a repetition of the names of at least 412 NFS card beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, the political slugfest over the “ration scam” has already begun. The Aam Aadmi Party is training its guns at Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and his officers, alleging that Baijal, who had been insisting that ‘all is well’ with the Delhi’s PDS, wanted to protect corrupt officers.

The Opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), holds AAP responsible for the scam and Manoj Tiwari, the Delhi BJP chief, has equated the discrepancies to the ‘chaara ghotala’ (fodder scam) of Bihar.”

AAP rebel legislator Kapil Mishra has gone a step ahead, claiming that this was a scam worth Rs 5,400 crore.

The Congress party, however, tore into both the BJP and the AAP. Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken, on Thursday, said, “The chairman of circle level [ration] vigilance committee is a legislator and similarly the MPs are chairman of district-level vigilance committees. Their work was to monitor the PDS system. These MLAs have failed. Leaders like Manoj Tiwari, who are protesting today, should tell how many meetings of the vigilance committees were held.”

Not only did Maken demand that Kejriwal should resign, he also sought a “CBI inquiry into the scam and the role of vigilance committees – to find out whether they were hand in gloves”.

Responding to Maken’s allegations, AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj told Newslaundry: “The local-level vigilance committees have raised the issue of corruption in the PDS not once, twice but at least a hundred times.”

He further alleged that LG Baijal has been protecting tainted officers. Citing how the complaints of MLAs was overlooked, Bhardwaj said, “Almost two years ago, in one case in Burari, MLA Sanjeev Jha complained against a ration shop, and subsequently, it was sealed. The ration shop guy [license holder] approached the LG, who without any jurisdiction de-sealed the shop and also recommended that an FIR should be filed against Jha.”

The AAP is using the CAG report as an opportunity to attack the LG and emphasise the need to roll out its pet project – the doorstep delivery of rations.

During his activist days, Kejriwal used to target those in government when reports indicating corruption used to surface. He has waved RTI replies and CAG reports demanding the resignation of ministers on numerous occasions before AAP formed a government. And now he is trying to take a higher moral ground by saying that “exemplary action will be taken against the guilty…and no one will be spared”.

When asked why the onus of failure and inaction should not rest with the Kejriwal government, Bhardwaj told Newslaundry: “You can’t blame us. When you talk about corruption under the Sheila Dikshit government or any other state government, you find that the minister or the Chief Minister didn’t act against such corruption. But in this case, our government doesn’t have the power to act – suspend, transfer or prosecute corrupt officials.”

“In the past, when Asim [Ahmed Khan] was accused of corruption, the Chief Minister sacked him. Here, you can throw out a minister but you can’t act against an officer,” Bhardwaj said.

The Public Accounts Committee will now examine the findings of the CAG report and recommend action against the department – if required.