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NEW
DELHI : Doordarshan initiated action in March last year for
recovery of Rs 2.05 million against the total Rs 2.41 million
due to it for giving excess free commercial time sponsors
of two different programmes in November 2004 and early 2006.
However, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has observed
that though the public broadcaster had raised the bills after
it was pointed out that the FCT ledger was not being kept
correctly, Doordarshan irregularly allowed 15 per cent commission.
Under the provisions of the Rate Card, the commission can
only be allowed if the agency pays the dues within the stipulated
time of 45 days from the first of the month following the
date of broadcast.
The CAG says it referred the issue to the Information and
Broadcasting Ministry in June last year but no reply had been
received till November.
Under the Rate Card, FCT is the time allowed by Doordarshan
for commercial advertisements to the sponsors without charging
any fee, and this is bankable up to 100 per cent anytime during
the same programme subject to the limits specified in the
Card. To ensure the advertising agencies do not use excess
FCT, Doordarshan Commercial Service maintains an FCT Ledger
indicating the progressive banked FCT available at the credit
of each proper and its utilization.
Audit of a particular programme showed that the Ledger did
not have the correct details of the FCT allowed and used,
and therefore the correctness of the banked FCT was not ascertainable
at any point of time. CAG which reconstructed the Ledger found
that at the end of the 48th episode of the programme telecast
in November 2004, the producer had availed an excess of 310
seconds of excess FCT, resulting in a loss of Rs 1.87 million.
In
the case of another programme, the FCT utilized by the producer
in five episodes telecast in February-March 2006 was not recorded
or was short recorded in the Ledger. The producer had actually
used 1245 seconds of FDCT in these episodes against the credit
of 880 seconds at the end of the 325th episode in September
2006. This resulted in the producer being granted excess FCT
of 365 seconds resulting in a loss of Rs 5,48,000 at the prescribed
rate.
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