The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations or PM CARES Fund has become a point of contention several times since its inception on March 28 as a corpus to fight COVID-19. 

The PM CARES trust, formed amid the Coronavirus crisis has Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its chairperson and senior cabinet members as trustees. The fund was created to facilitate donations from private individuals and corporate entities to tackle the coronavirus crisis. A section of people including opposition parties has raised questions about the necessity of the Fund when the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) already exists since 1948 and also pointed out that there must be more transparency in the use of PM CARES fund created to deal with the pandemic.

PM CARES Fund will not be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)

PM CARES Fund will not be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) as the funds is based on donations of Individual and also stated that their office will not audit the Fund unless the trustees ask them to do so.  In a report dated April 24, sources in the CAG offices said, "Since the fund is based on donations of individuals and organizations, we have no right to audit the charitable organization."  

"Unless the trustees ask us to audit, we will not be auditing the accounts," a senior official in the CAG added.

Just like the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund set up in 1948 by then PM Jawaharlal Nehru, the PM-CARES fund will also be audited by an independent qualified set of auditors. The auditors will be appointed by the fund's trustees. 

In a meeting held on April 23, M/s SARC Associates, Chartered Accountants, has been appointed as auditors of PM CARES Fund for 3 years. This is the same firm, headed by Sunil Kumar Gupta, which audits the PM National Relief Fund.

The trust has specified that an audit will be conducted at the end of the financial year and that it was registered as a public charitable trust in New Delhi on March 27, 2020. “The Trustees are responsible for the following - fulfilling the objects of the Trust, managing the contribution process to ensure proper application of the Trust property and preparing and submitting all filings, accounts, and returns as required under applicable law,” the updated FAQs on the PM CARES website now says.

As per PM CARES website so far, an amount of Rs. 3100 Crore has been allocated from the PM CARES Fund for the following activities:-

1. Rs. 2000 Crore: For supply of 50,000 ‘Made-in India’ ventilators to Government Hospitals run by Centre/States/UTs
2. Rs. 1000 Crore: For care of migrant labourers (funds allotted to State/UT Govts.)
3. Rs. 100 Crore: For vaccine development

Supreme Court seeks government's reply to a plea seeking a direction that contributions made to the PM CARES Fund be transferred to the NDRF

In April, an RTI was filed seeking details about the constitution of the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund. However,  the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has declared that the fund, like the PMNRF, does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Right to Information Act, 2005.

Given this, a PIL has now been filed in the Supreme Court demanding that the entire amount collected by the PM CARES fund to be transferred to the NDRF. The petitioner, the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, argues that the NDRF, which is meant to allow individuals or institutions to contribute funds towards handling emergency situations, is a transparent system and the funds collected under it will be subject to a statutory audit by the CAG. On June 17, the court issued notice to the Centre and asked it to file its reply in two weeks. 

However, until now, since there was no mechanism for the public to donate, no funds have been collected from the public in NDRF.

The NDRF is set up to “meet the expenses for emergency response, relief and rehabilitation” in the situation of a disaster. All states have their own such funds under the Act. Now, nearly 15 years after the Disaster Management Act was passed, the government has issued guidelines to allow any person or institution to contribute directly to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) set up under the Act.