Salary standoff: Now Prasar Bharti CEO says MIB released funds for salaries

As per media reports, Prasar Bharti and the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) have been at loggerheads over release of funds towards payment of salaries of the staff of Doordarshan and All India Radio. 

Now, SS Vempati, CEO, Prasar Bharti, has said that MIB had released funds amounting to Rs 208 crore towards payment of salaries. Vempati tweeted on March 4, 2018, “Noticed reports in sections of media on non-disbursal of salaries to DD & AIR staff. Rs 208 crore towards salaries were released on the 28th Feb 2018. Attempts to create panic malafide. PB has so far received Rs 1,989 crore from MIB as grants-in-aid for salaries during FY2017-18.” 

According to online news website, The Wire, Prasar Bharti Chairman A Surya Prakash had alleged that MIB had not released funds for payment of salaries since December 2017. Due to this, Prasar Bharti had to release the funds to pay the salaries for January and February 2018 from its own contingency funds. 

Reacting to the media reports, MIB in a clarification issued on March 2, 2018 had stated: “It has come to the notice of the Ministry that a deliberate, sinister, motivated campaign has been launched by some elements to wrongfully tarnish the image of the Ministry of I&B by reporting that money to Prasar Bharti is not being released after December 2017 as a retaliation to Prasar Bharti not obeying certain dictates of the Ministry.” 

The MIB called these allegations “patently defamatory in nature” and said: “Fiscal prudence and accountability is the very fulcrum of the functioning of any Government organisation. Prasar Bharti is as much bound by the General Financial Rules (GFR) of the Government of India as any Ministry or any organisation receiving grants-in-aid from the Government. As per the provision of GFR, any autonomous organisation receiving Grant-in-Aid must sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry, clearly bringing out the physical and financial targets with timelines for activities to be done by utilising the said grant during that financial year. For the record, irrespective of repeated reminders from the Ministry, no MoU has been signed by Prasar Bharti.” 

Citing an example of how fiscal accountability leads to curbing of wasteful expenditure, MIB illustrated, “By bringing in Human Resource Information System (HRIS) in Prasar Bharti, at repeated insistence of the Ministry, exact amount of expenditure on employees has been worked out and this has resulted in savings to the tune of nearly Rs 30 crore per month for the salary head (Rs 360 crore a year). The Sam Pitroda Committee had also suggested a number of measures such as manpower audit, etc. to enhance financial discipline. Hence, we are hopeful that following similar footsteps, together a lot can be done to enhance transparency and accountability.” 

At the same time Ministry reiterated that the Government remained committed to protecting the interest of all Prasar Bharti employees.