New Delhi: A performance audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India of the Modi government’s flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) to provide industry-relevant skill training and certification has found serious lapses in its implementation. This includes 94.53% of bank account details of beneficiaries across states entered as zero, left blank, or not available, duplication of photos and invalid or repeated mobile numbers.The report also noted lack of objective assessment of market demand for specific job roles and training effort aligned to it, with the overall placement rate at only 41%. It also noted that candidates for skill training were enrolled under the scheme by ignoring their age, education and work experience related specific criteria prescribed in the guidelines/qualification packs.The audit found delays in release and non-utilisation of funds under the state component, as well as incorrect estimation and delay in transfer of central component funds of Rs 222.63 crore.The flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) was launched in July 2015. Between 2015-22, three phases of PMKVY have been launched with an outlay of around Rs 4,450 crore and combined targets of providing skill training/certification to 1.32 crore candidates. The scheme was managed through central and state components by earmarking 75% and 25% of physical targets and financial allocations to National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and State Skill Development Missions, respectively.The audit was conducted at MSDE, NSDC and in eight states (Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) at their respective State Skill Development Missions and selected District Skill Committees. The report was tabled in parliament during the winter session.Invalid bank accounts, email addresses, mobile numbersWhile PMKVY guidelines mandate candidates to have a valid bank account, which is important for the payment of Rs 500 to each certified candidate through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), the CAG report said that an analysis of data of PMKVY 2.0 and 3.0 found that in 94.53% cases, i.e., for 90,66,264 of the 95,90,801 participants, the ‘bankAccountdetails’ field either contained zeros, ‘Null’, ‘N/A’ or was left blank.The report said that for the remaining 5,24,537 candidates, 12,122 bank account numbers were repeated for 52,381 participants in two or more instances.“Even in cases of use of single account for one candidate (4,72,156 unique accounts for each candidate), instances of apparent wrong account numbers were noticed viz., ‘11111111111…’, ‘123456……’, single digit account numbers, or just text, names, address, or special characters etc. As such, analysis of account number field in PMKVY 2.0 and 3.0 data did not provide adequate assurance about the identity of participants of this scheme,” the report said.The report also said that the ministry had said to the CAG that bank account details were mandatory only initially, and later payouts were done on the basis of Aadhaar seeding, which supports payouts directly into Aadhaar linked bank accounts that eliminate the need to collect bank account numbers.The audit, however, found on the basis of the information provided by the ministry that in 2023 DBT payments were processed for only 25.58% candidates and were successful for just 18.44%.In October 2024, 63.75% candidates were found to have been paid through DBT.The CAG report has pointed to widespread use of invalid email addresses, including just zeros followed by @gmail.com, abc@gmail.com, abcd@gmail.com, 123@gmail.com and numbers followed by @gmail.com, etc.The report said that the field ‘Candidate_Email’ was also recorded as ‘Migrated data’ in the case of 36,49,344 candidates.“Similarly, in cases of use of a mobile number for candidates, about 87,000 mobile numbers having less than 10 digits, containing ‘1000000000, 1111111111 etc., beginning with digit 1 to 5 etc., were noticed,” the report said.When the audit examined the updated PMKVY data (October 2024) through an analysis of data of 9.45 lakh certified candidates, it found that there were still instances of invalid (175) or repeated mobile numbers (2,263).“Besides, there were instances (more than 2.72 lakh) of ‘null’ email addresses, as well as repeated email addresses (more than 3.08 lakh). This indicates that the requisite IT controls as assured by the Ministry in May 2023 were yet to come to effect,” the report said.Duplication of photosWhile PMKVY-RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) guidelines provide for uploading of high-resolution pictures and videography of certification processes, including batch-wise photos of the candidates, the audit noted instances where the same photographs were used in different states.For instance, the audit found that the employer Neelima Moving Pictures (NMP), a Proprietary Business Agency not registered with Registrar of Companies under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, had awarded skill certifications to 33,493 participants (employees) for 21 job roles in eight states from January 2020 to November 2020 through Media and Entertainment SSC (Sector Skill Councils).“The employer (NMP), however, was found not in existence during the audit process (03 October 2022). In response, concerned SSC intimated (October 2022) that the entity was closed during COVID-19,” the report said.The report further said that analysis of photographic evidence of 24 batches for which details were produced by the SSC revealed that NMP had produced the same photographic evidence regarding skill certification undertaken by it pertaining to different batches in different states.“Fresh evidence provided (May 2023) by the Ministry was again examined where it was noted that profile pictures of only 694 candidates and Aadhaar details of only 132 candidates were available out of the 812 candidates in these 24 batches. Further, duplications similar to those illustrated above were also present in 58 profile pictures,” the report said.The report also noted that while under PMKVY, Training Centres (TC) are registered for conducting training for various job-roles in accordance with the guidelines, several such training centres were found to be closed during the audit process.The report said according to the data provided by the Ministry/NSDC (September 2022), around 14,800 TCs were involved in various skill training projects under the scheme. During the performance audit process, inspection of 90 selected TCs to check availability of the basic requisite infrastructure for the participants and survey of 1045 candidates undergoing training was undertaken in selected States.“However, during inspection of TCs, it was found that three out of the 10 TCs in Bihar and one of the 17 in Odisha were closed at the time of survey conducted jointly with DSC (District Skill Committees) representatives,” the report said.Placement rate 41%The report also found an absence of objective assessment of market demand for specific job-roles and aligning the training effort to it, with the overall placement rate at only 41%.Analysis of PMKVY skill training data revealed that a total 56.14 lakh candidates were certified under STT/SP component in 724 job-roles, of which around 40% of skill certifications were concentrated in only 10 job-roles in limited sectors including apparel, electronics, retail, logistics, IT, construction, telecom and healthcare.The report said that among the reasons for low placement of certified candidates in Assam for instance sectors like Plumbing, Logistics, Healthcare, and Leather placement where during PMKVY 2.0 placement was 84% were not considered for skill training during PMKVY 3.0.In Bihar, placement strategies prescribed in PMKVY guidelines including mapping of potential employers, industry requirement, preparation of employment matrix, strategy for tying with industry, self-employment, etc., were not undertaken.In Odisha, the audit found action plans for the employment of certified candidates were prepared without evaluating their potential in providing employment.The report noted that the ministry in its response in May 2023 said economic uncertainty following the COVID-19 outbreak was the cause of low placement rate.Unutilised fundsThe audit found that funds for the scheme were not utilised.While the ministry said that disruptions were caused during the COVID-19 pandemic, the audit found that out of Rs 1,380.87 crore of funds for PMKVY 2.0 and 3.0 disbursed to states during 2016-24, as of March 2024, 20.09% (Rs 277.40 crore) remained unutilised.The report said that during the pre-COVID period, i.e., 2016-19, against the release of Rs 757.82 crore, the utilisation was only Rs 149.85 crore.