The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), has flagged "poor utilisation" of income by Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board for its mandated activities and a delay in payment of taxes leading to incurring of additional amount on interest that could have been spent on social security and welfare of labourers. The CAG  audit report  tabled in the Delhi Assembly on Tuesday, also pointed to low spending on welfare activities.

 The Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board was constituted in September 2002 to collect cess and utilise same for providing social security, health care, etc. To construction workers in Delhi. The CAG report for year ending March 31, 2018, presented in Assembly by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, stated the payment of `97.64 crore as income tax and interest "deprived" building and other construction workers from much-needed social security and other welfare measures.

Another audit report, also tabled in the Assembly, for the year ending March 2019 flagged that Board did not prepare any long-term perspective plan or annual plan to ensure fulfilment of its mandated objectives.  "During the years 2002-19, the Board received `3,273.64 croreas cess, interest on cess collected and registration fee out of which it spent only `182.88 crore (5.59 per cent) on welfare of construction workers and the cess and fee collected along with interest had accumulated to Rs 2,709.46 crore as of March 2019," said the report.

 "As of March 2019, only 17,339 (1.7 per cent) out of an estimated 10 lakh construction workers were registered with the Board, thereby depriving 98 per cent of the workers of the benefits of welfare schemes of the Board," the report said.