Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s local bodies, universities and other institutions reported audit objections involving ₹6,770.79 crore during 2024-25, of which ₹1.28 crore had been recovered as of May 31, 2026, according to the consolidated audit report of the local fund audit department. The report, which was recently tabled in the assembly, was uploaded on the govt portal on Thursday.Auditors raised 1.82 lakh observations, including major objections involving ₹163 crore in Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) and other institutions. Among the major irregularities flagged in GCC, auditors found that procurement and school-related work worth ₹20 crore had been awarded through quotations instead of open or limited tenders. This allegedly benefited contractors and violated provisions of the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act.GCC said the procurement was carried out with the council’s approval, citing urgency. “The audit objection is pending until orders condoning the procedural irregularity are obtained from the govt,” the report said.The report said the local body had incurred an “avoidable annual burden” of ₹4.12 crore by deploying more than 200 sanitation workers engaged under the National Urban Livelihood Mission for office duties, though they were certified as having performed sanitation work. GCC said that 175 workers had subsequently been relieved and redeployed for sanitation work, but formal council ratification was pending.Auditors further flagged expenditure of ₹2.12 crore on maintaining micro composting centres and material recovery facilities that had remained closed since June 2024.In Tambaram and Avadi corporations, among others, the audit identified a recurring revenue loss of ₹38.96 crore due to domestic water and sewerage charges being levied on commercial and industrial buildings. At Vellore Corporation, auditors alleged a loss of ₹3.22 crore after a contractor engaged in solid waste management services submitted fabricated Employees’ Provident Fund challans. The contractor had been paid ₹4.46 crore towards EPF contributions, while actual remittances amounted to ₹26.98 lakh.The audit also found that 60 municipalities had paid ₹14.28 crore in Goods and Services Tax on solid waste management and conservancy services that were exempt from GST.Several serious irregularities were reported in universities as well. At Annamalai University, pension and family pension payments totalling ₹19.64 crore continued to be made to 342 beneficiaries without annual mustering. The report noted a long-pending loan of ₹10.67 crore from an earmarked fund. “University officials who were in charge at that time had misused and mismanaged the earmarked fund amount,” the report said, recommending action to recover the loan.
