The suspension of three officials of the Finance Department on the charge of leaking sensitive information to the media is nothing but an attempt to “sweep the government’s failures under the carpet,” TDP Polit Bureau member Yanamala Ramakrishnudu has alleged.
The officials were made scapegoat, Mr. Ramakrishnudu said in a statement on Thursday. The employees were being targeted “in a bid to cover up the financial lapses,” he added.
‘No transparency’
“The Cabinet is the custodian of public money. The State Assembly, the constitutional institutions such as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), and the Union Finance Ministry have been kept in the dark about the expenditure incurred by the government,” the former Finance Minister alleged.
The State government had not maintained transparency in expenditure and had pushed the State into a deep crisis, he alleged.
With a view to bringing in transparency in the system, the TDP government had digitised and kept all information in public domain, he said. The CAG reports, the FRBM reports, and the budget expenditures were all made available to the people, he said.
“The present government should understand these facts. There is no need for anyone to leak information deliberately,” Mr. Ramakrishnudu asserted.
‘Bad precedent’
The YSRCP government had set a bad precedent by mobilising ₹34,650 crore as loans through various corporations, the TDP leader alleged.
“On an average, the TDP government had mobilised ₹26,000 crore as loans per year during its term against ₹50,000 crore by the YSRCP government. This apart, the government has obtained ₹34,000 crore off-budget borrowings. And these funds have not been spent on productive programmes,” he alleged.
