Role of RO, DEO and CEO in Expenditure Monitoring

 Conducting elections, especially Lok Sabha elections and elections to the State Legislative Assemblies is a gigantic task and is essentially a team work. At the State level, the conduct of election is supervised, subject to overall superintendence, direction and control of the ECI, by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the State and by the District Election Officer (DEO) at the district level. At Parliamentary/Assembly constituency level, the Returning Officer (RO) is overall in-charge of the whole election process. Main functions of these officers relating to monitoring of election expenditure are as under:


1. Role of Returning Officer (RO):

The Returning Officer shall hold a meeting of all candidates immediately after the allotment of symbols to explain the process of expenditure monitoring, legal provisions relating to election expenditure and consequences of non-compliance of these provisions. He also issues permission letters for vehicles/public meetings etc., promptly to the candidates as required under the law or rules. The Returning Officer shall ensure that the revised combined format of Affidavit (Form 26) for filing criminal records and asset and liability statement by the candidates is made available to all potential candidates. He shall also give the expenditure register, duly signed and page numbered, to the candidates at the time of filing of nomination papers.


He shall notify the dates for inspection of accounts by the Expenditure Observer during the campaign period, and shall issue notices to the candidates to explain any discrepancy between the candidate's expenditure register and the Shadow Observation Register, as advised by the Expenditure Observer. He shall also supervise the complaint monitoring system and ensure that every complaint is inquired into within 24 hours of receipt.


He shall ensure that all the documents required to be put up on the notice board of the RO under these or any other instructions, rules or law are put up on the notice board. He shall ensure that the copies of documents. when demanded, are given immediately to members of the public on payment of the prescribed fee.


It has been decided by the Commission that the affidavits on declaration of assets and liabilities by the candidates of recognized political parties are to be put up on the website on the same day. The affidavits in respect of other candidates may be put within one day after scrutiny of nominations (Annexure-C16). In order to move forward in the way of digital India and to minimize scope of mistakes in nomination form and the affidavit (Form 26), the Commission has decided to provide an optional facility to candidates for online data entry of personal details in nomination form. This facility will be available for the candidates through the Election Commission's Suvidha portal https://suvidha eci gov.in. The candidate will have to do the registration and login with the mobile number and OTP. The guidelines for availing this facility are enclosed with Annexure-20. At present, the facility of online data entry is available in two languages, namely, English and Hindi,


The RO shall issue notices to the defaulting candidates, as suggested by the Expenditure Observer. He shall also ensure that after seizure is made by FS and SST, the FIR/ complaint is filed promptly.


The RO shall hold a meeting of all the candidates immediately after allotment of symbols. In this meeting. the RO shall explain all the legal provisions and instructions of the Commission relating to election expenditure, its monitoring and the consequences of failure to comply with them. The RO shall also give a copy of this Compendium and notification of rates of items of election expenditure to each candidate. For advertisement in the local or national dailies/ magazines (English/Regional), rates of the DAVP/DIPR rates shall also be communicated to the candidates. The Assistant Expenditure Observer or Expenditure Observer shall also attend this meeting along with the RO.


The RO shall organize a meeting of all candidates immediately after the allotment of symbols, and properly explain to them, the legal provisions relating to election expenditure and consequences of failure to comply with the provisions of law. The Assistant Expenditure Observer/Expenditure Observers will be present in the meeting. The RO shall also give a copy of these instructions regarding expenditure monitoring to each candidate both in English and vernacular language.


Inspection of Accounts:


The RO shall prepare a schedule for inspection of Expenditure Register of each candidate, by the Expenditure Observer, or a senior officer designated by the RO in consultation with the Expenditure Observer for the purpose. The candidate is required to produce the register either in person or through his election agent or any other person duly authorized by him before the Expenditure Observer/designated officer for inspection at least three times during the campaign period. The gap between two inspections should be at least three days. This schedule shall be given wide publicity through the press. For convenience, for each candidate the timing of inspection may be specified between 10 AM to 5 PM. Timings should be fixed in such a way that the work should be completed before 7 PM. The inspection should be done either in the office room of the RO or any other conference room/office chamber. The last inspection should be fixed not before 3 days from the day of poll (Annexure-C15). After every inspection during the election process, the day to day election account register of a candidate shall be scanned till the date of inspection and uploaded onto the DEO's portal with a link provided to the CEO's website besides displaying a photocopy on the notice board (Annexure-C8).


If a candidate or his agent does not produce his Election Expenditure Register for inspection on the day fixed for this purpose, a notice shall be issued to the candidate by the RO in writing, informing him that if he fails again to produce the Register for inspection on the day specified in the notice, it shall be presumed that he has failed to maintain a day to day account of election expenditure as required under Section 77 of RP Act 1951. This notice shall be given the widest possible publicity and a copy shall be displayed on the notice board of the RO. If, in spite of the notice. the candidate fails to produce the register of election expenditure for inspection, a complaint under Section 171-1 of IPC shall be filed in the competent court. Besides this, the permission given to the candidate for use of vehicles during election should be withdrawn, if the candidate does not produce the register after three days of service of the notice. The withdrawal of permission for use of vehicles shall be intimated to all the Surveillance Teams and Flying Squads and displayed on the notice board.


Publicity should also be given that members of the public can be present during inspection of expenditure registers/ accounts and that anybody can obtain a copy of the expenditure register of any candidate, on payment of Re. 1 per page, from the Returning Officer. The inspection of registers should be done, as far as possible, by the Expenditure Observers only Where the inspection of register is carried out by a designated officer, other than the Expenditure Observer due to some unavoidable reasons. the Expenditure Observer shall be kept apprised of the outcome of each such inspection and the reasons for such inspection by any other officer.


Training:


(a) The DEO shall organize one-day facilitation training programme for all the candidates/ election agents and the personnel engaged for receiving the accounts within one week before the last date of submission of the account of election expenses.


(b) The Nodal Officer of the Expenditure Monitoring Cell and Assistant Expenditure Observer should be associated in the training programme to explain the procedure of filing of accounts. the forms and affidavits to be filed and the frequently noticed defects. Consequences of not filing or filing incomplete forms or not filing in the manner prescribed or not showing correct accounts shall also be explained to the candidates/agents.

(c) In this training programme they will also be apprised about the Account Reconciliation meeting, in which they should come prepared with all final accounts and registers.

(d) The DEO shall notify the date and venue of training on procedure of lodging the final accounts and also about the date of Account Reconciliation meeting, positively on or by the date of declaration of result.