Useless Expenditure of Rs. 5.76 crore towards Government of Odisha advertisement

Useless Expenditure of
Rs. 5.76  crore  towards 
Government of Odisha   advertisement, AG Audit Report

·        
Undue favour shown private TV channels violating DAVP guidelines
and SC order.

·        
No guideline policy  for 
issue  of advertisement  was prepared  by State Govt.   for unknown period  with 
ulterior motive  to give maximum
benefit  to TV channels.

·        
Kalinga TV stands 
as biggest  beneficiary  of   policy of favouratism   of
Nabin Patnaik Govt.

·        
This is , no doubt  huge loss 
to state exchequer .

·        
Price  offered
to  TV channels  of Odisha 
is  even higher  that that 
of  National channels.

Prior  to General Election-2020,  Govt. of Odisha  adopted 
multi-prone  and multi-faceted   strategy 
to use  media  in its  favour 
to propagate  so-called  scheme 
and programme  of Govt. and
highlight image  of Chief Minister  as clean, non-corrupt and best
administrator  in the  country 
 for  mobilizing  people to vote 
for  BJD. Huge  amount 
of fund  was  mindlessly 
sanctioned  to Media   in form of 
granting advertisement to keep  them
satisfied   and work 
for rulling  party. CAG Audit
Report has brought it  to the limelight in the state.

 Govt. of Odisha  in Information and Public Relation Department
issued  work order to different private TV
channels  and commercial TV  channels including Doordarshan Kendra (DDK)  for advertisement of 20 Govt. programme /
schemes  during  2016-19 ( Sept. 2018) for  telecast of spot ranged from 30 to 50 seconds
as  per schedule  of telecast 
in their TV channels and may raise 
bill  on negotiated  rates less 
discount admissible for payments. Accordingly, the TV channels including
DDK  claimed  bills Rs. 7.25, 97,060.00 for  the advertised  development programme. Out of total claimed
amount 6,85, 16,238.00 was paid by the department  and Rs.40,80,822.00 is yet  to be 
paid to TV channels.

 In this context, AG Audit
observed  that  private TV channels ( including news  and General Entertainment  channels)  had claimed bill  of  Rs.
6,98, 08,684.00 towards advertisement as per their negotiated price of telecast
cost /spot ( “10 second”). On comparing the list of private TV channels empaneled
with DAVP, it was found that DAVP has empanelled the news and GEC as per their
time band. For news channel, there are five-time bands and for GEC channel,
there are six-time bands. Price for advertisement of each time band   was varying from one other and maximum price   for advertisement of every TV channel was
fixed as per their prime time.

 It was  noticed that 
I and PR Dept. negotiated  rate  of
TV channels  irrespective  of 
their time band . Further it was found that  out of total private channels which had advertised
 Odisha 
Govt. development programme , there were 
11 TV channels which were 
also  empaneled  with DAVP  
to advertise GOI advertisement at rates fixed by DAVP. The  details is as follows.

 Statement 
showing comparison of negotiated rate of private TV channels  with DAVP rate

 Audit also observed  that  though Department prepared  a Draft policy /guideline  for empanelment  of 
media houses  and fixation of rate
as per  time band taking into account the
weightage  of technical aspects  of each TV channel , but  the 
Director, I and PR  has not  taken any steps  for approval of the same. Instead
negotiated  the price  on the rate offered by the channels. After  comparing DAVP prime time cost  of the advertisement of private TV channels
with negotiated rate of the department , it was 
found that Rs. 5,75, 99,309.00 could have been avoided by  the department.

 It is worthwhile  to mention here that India’s  top news channel  and GEC such as “ Aaj  Tak”,  “Z
news “, “ India TV” , News18 India , Tarang 
etc. were empaneled with DAVP and their 
price  per 10 seconds was fixed as
per  the 
time band which ranged  between
Rs. 647.00  to Rs.3304.00 per 10 seconds
. It clearly  indicates that that  the rate 
offered  by private TV channels
were  also three times higher  than the national news  channels   and
the  department  without considering  the aforesaid aspects, negotiated rate  and given 
undue  financial   advantage   to private TV channels.  

 In the absence of any
guideline / policy , the work orders 
were  issued  to private TV channels arbitrarily  mentioning in almost  every file , as desired  by higher authority without  making 
it clear  “on whose order “  and “ on what basis” . the orders  were 
issued to  private  TV channels for  advertisement 
of Govt. programme  ignoring
ratings of the  channel which
defeated  the very purpose of  spending the 
public money  judiciously and to
ensure  transparency  in selection of  agencies 
for Government advertisement.  

 It deserves to mention here
that  the 
Department  decided to
formulate  guideline/policy  on regulation of electronics media and Web
Media separately  for delivery  of advertisement message  to the widest 
possible messages in a cost 
effective manner. A committee was formed in Dec. 15  under 
chairmanship  of Director, I and
PR Dept.  and meeting was held on 18^th
April, 2016  in which it was decided
to  frame 
a policy in line with  guideline/
policy  of  DAVP.  A
draft  guideline policy  was prepared  for approval of the  Govt. However it was never approved.

 Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date- 26.5.21