The officers departed from Chandigarh on March 2 and are scheduled to return on March 9, resuming office on March 10; the total cost of the trip has been borne by the Union ministry of tourism
Even though the top bureaucrats of the UT administration—chief secretary Rajeev Verma and home secretary Mandip Singh Brar—along with two other officials, Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation (CITCO) managing director Hari Kallikat, director of tourism Pradhuman Singh, and a tourism department employee, Hitesh Kumar, have gone to Berlin, Germany, to attend the three-day World Travel Trade Expo from March 4 to 6. Past records suggest that such visits have not yielded any significant results.
The officers departed from Chandigarh on March 2 and are scheduled to return on March 9, resuming office on March 10. The total cost of the trip has been borne by the Union ministry of tourism.
The World Travel Trade Expo Berlin, also known as the International Travel Trade Show (ITB Berlin), is the world’s leading B2B travel trade event.
Chairman of the Federation of Sectors Welfare Association Chandigarh (FOSWAC), Baljinder Singh Bittu, said the officers have been spending taxpayers’ money on foreign visits without delivering any tangible outcomes. “The officers have never submitted a report on these trips, nor has any visible action been taken based on their learnings over the past several years,” he added.
Anomalies pointed out in STEPS’ audit report
In 2019, the local audit department of the UT administration highlighted serious anomalies in its audit report on the Society for Tourism and Entertainment Promotion in Chandigarh (STEPS), which operates under the aegis of the UT tourism department. The audit report revealed numerous lapses and violations of general financial rules, including travel expenditures that were neither approved nor properly sanctioned in a timely manner by the governing body of STEPS, which is headed by the UT chief secretary.
The report also pointed out that officers purchased air tickets from private agencies for international trade events without following prescribed norms. As per regulations, the reimbursement of air ticket costs should be based on verification of the lowest available fare to a particular destination, which was not done in this case.
The then director of tourism, Jatinder Yadav, had undertaken multiple foreign visits, including trips to Germany and the United Kingdom, over the past three years.