Assistant Expenditure Observer (AEO):
Assistant Expenditure Observers (AEO) shall be appointed for each constituency on date of notification of election by the DEO and if a change is suggested by the Expenditure Observer, the same shall be carried out The AEO shall be of the rank of Group B Officer or equivalent in other Central Government Services. If the officers of Income Tax Dept. are engaged by the Investigation Directorate for the seizure of cash and goods, then such names should not be requisitioned for the AEO's duty. If there is absence of such officers in the district, then officers of the State Treasury or Finance Department may be nominated. He should preferably be a local officer, posted within the same district or nearby but whose work place and home town should not be in the same Constituency. The AEO shall be provided with a vehicle, one personal security officer and a local SIM card and office space in the office premises of the RO, as he will be coordinating with all the teams. nodal officers and the Expenditure Observer. If the HQ of the AEO is different from the constituency, he shall be provided with lodging and boarding in the constituency.
Assistant Expenditure Observer shall be deployed in the constituency from the date of the notification upto date of poll/re-poll, if any and shall not leave the constituency without the permission of the Expenditure Observer. However, Assistant Expenditure Observer shall report for duty one day before the day of counting and again on 25th Day to 37th Day after declaration of result of election, for the purposes of giving training to the candidates or his election agents in submission of account of election expenses and to assist in preparation of the DEOS Scrutiny Report and Expenditure Observer Report. He shall be finally relieved after 37 day of declaration of results. (Annexure-B 18)
There shall be at least one Assistant Expenditure Observer for each Assembly Constituency/Segment. But in expenditure sensitive constituencies, there may be two or more Assistant Expenditure Observers - one for outdoor recording of events and other for coordination with the teams.
The Assistant Expenditure Observer shall see reports of the video CDs, read all the complaints and reports with respect to each candidate, and study the Shadow Observation Register and the candidate's Expenditure Register. He shall supervise the maintenance of the Shadow Observation Register and Folder of Evidence. The Assistant Expenditure Observer shall be trained by the DEO before arrival of EO and he shall work under the supervision and guidance of EO. He shall ensure that all the expenditure related reports/orders in respect of each candidate are obtained from all the teams engaged in Expenditure Monitoring and are properly reflected in the candidate's day to day accounts of Election Expenditure. In case of complaint of corrupt practice, he shall pass on the same to the Flying Squads for immediate action and inform the Expenditure Observer immediately. The Flying Squads shall report to him about action taken on each complaint. If no action is taken by the squad or there is delay in taking action, he should bring it to the notice of Expenditure Observer, who in turn shall report to the Commission with a copy to the DEO and the CEO. If he thinks that the SST is not working properly or is not correctly deployed he may suggest changes to ensure that major arterial roads are covered by.
He shall submit a daily report to the Expenditure Observer on all his activities as per Annexure-B14. Till the EO reaches the Constituency, the AEO shall submit his report to DEO/RO which shall be brought to the notice of the EO afterwards. The Folder of Evidence shall have all records of the evidences collected during the campaign. He shall make it available to the Expenditure Observer at the time of inspection of the candidate's register for election expenses. In case of any evidence of suppression or understatement of expenses is found in the candidate's register, the Assistant Expenditure Observer shall bring it to the notice of the Expenditure Observer and through him to the candidate appropriately during the inspection.
On the days fixed for inspections of register of a candidate, the Assistant Expenditure Observer assigned to keep a watch on the expenditure in that constituency should be present, along with the Shadow Observation Register and Folder of Evidence.
The Assistant Expenditure Observer shall assist the EO and also the DEO in submission of his scrutiny report to the Commission. He shall remain present during the third visit of Expenditure Observer to the district and shall assist him in his task.
The Assistant Expenditure Observer shall co-ordinate with the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) at the district level and report to the Expenditure Observer about its effective functioning. If all the cables/channels/newspapers are not being watched by this committee, it should be brought to the notice of the Expenditure Observer/Commission immediately with a copy to the DEO and the CEO.
If any campaign related public rally/procession/event could not be videographed due to unavailability of a videographer, the Assistant Expenditure Observer shall mention such incident in the Shadow Observation Register. If any advertisement in print or electronic media is not reported by the media committee, the Assistant Expenditure Observer shall obtain a copy and mention it in the Shadow Observation Register.
In case of Assembly elections an Accounting Team will function in each assembly constituency and maintain the Shadow Observation Register (SOR) & Folder of Evidence (FOE) for each candidate. In case of Lok Sabha election, the Assistant Expenditure Observer (AEO) & team for each Assembly segment will maintain SOR & FOE separately for each candidate and their reports to the AEO (Hq. AEO) of the Assembly segment where RO is based. The Hq. AEO and his team shall co-ordinate with all other AEOs of the Assembly segments and will ensure that these accounts are collated at the time of inspection. The AEO will function from the date of notification. (Annexure-B20)
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