CAG did not conduct audit on IAS Smita Sabharwal vehicle, Agriculture University gets notice

Hyderabad: The office of Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) of India has issued a cautionary letter to Jayashankar Agricultural University, asking for proof of the ‘audit’ and the persons in charge of it, which concluded that senior IAS officer Smita Sabharwal misused funds for a vehicle.

Some media outlets on March 18, 2025, carried a report stating that an audit done by the CAG revealed that the university had paid Rs 61 lakh for the car used by Smita Sabharwal for seven years. The university, after internal scrutiny, is likely to serve her notice for the recovery of the amount, the reports stated.

What was the alleged audit report about?

The media report against officer Sabharwal—currently heading Telangana Tourism as its secretary— also stated that the ‘audit’ done by the CAG flagged payment of bills by the Professor Jayashankar Telangana Agricultural University for a four-wheeler being used by Smitha Sabharwal during her stint as additional secretary in the chief minister office during the tenure of then CM K Chandrashekar Rao. The audit found that the payment was against norms and raised serious objections while conducting the audit of university accounts.

The reports also stated that the agricultural university had paid the bills for the vehicle bearing registration number TS08 EC 6345 used officer Sabharwal for 90 months, from October 2016 to March 2024, at Rs 63,000 per month. The university had paid the bills upon a letter sent by Sabharwal. In total, the university paid around Rs 61 lakh.

How did CAG respond?

Contrary to the media reports, the office of CAG has denied conducting any such audit, especially to do with a vehicle used by officer Sabharwal.

CAG, in its cautionary letter to the university, has stated:

- No such audit was done by CAG, which stated that Smita Sabharwal misused the vehicle provided for official duty.

- Even if the audit was done locally, why was such information disclosed?

- Audit reports are not even disclosed through RTI?

- Such information is only revealed after it has been tabled in the Parliament.

- When no such audit was done by the CAG, why was their name used in the press reports?

- If there is an audit, please share it with CAG.

However, there is a record of an audit being done by the university.

The university did an audit of the vehicles being used by private persons, and in that list, the vehicle used by officer Smita Sabharwal was not mentioned.

A highly placed source told NewsMeter, “The vehicle number mentioned in the media reports is not in the audit report, it was purportedly added. There was no audit by CAG. In this regard, a cautionary letter, drawing references to the press clipping, was sent to the university. The CAG did conduct an audit, but that was about the functioning of the university and about why the university's rank has dropped. But no audit was done; neither has CAG raised any objections about the vehicle.”

“The office of CAG immediately alerted the university as soon as it came to know about the purported audit that mentioned officer Smita Sabharwal. Even if such audit report exists, such information is not to be revealed to the media. This was a leak,” the source said.

When NewsMeter contacted the office of IAS officer Smita Sabharwal, the office informed that the vehicle used for official purposes was dutifully returned, and no notice was received from the university as stated in the media reports.