Final Cover Election Expenditure - Election Commission of India

expenses of that candidate including the vouchers and his comments citing defects in thesaid account and he will retain a photocopy of such account.11.2. Scrutiny of accounts shall be done by the DEO to determine whether the account submittedby the candidate is a true account of his election expenditure or the candidate has hidden orunder valued some part of his election expenditure. The Expenditure Observer, the AssistantExpenditure Observer and the Nodal Officer of Expenditure Monitoring Cell will help theDEO in the examination of accounts and preparation of his report to the Commission inmodified form. The Shadow Observation Register and the Folder of Evidence should betaken into account while examining the accounts and forwarding the DEO`s report to theCommission. The account of expenditure submitted by the candidate should be comparedwith the Shadow Observation Register. All notices issued earlier to the candidate or hiselection agent and replies received, if any, must be considered as evidence during scrutiny ofaccount by the DEO. All the remarks made by the Observers or any other officer in theexpenditure register of the candidate or on any other authorized document should be takeninto consideration while scrutinizing the correctness of the account of elections expensesfiled by the candidates. The Expenditure Observer shall give his comments on the ScrutinyReport. If he does not agree with the DEO, he shall mention the facts citing the evidences,in the space mentioned in the DEO’s Scrutiny report.11.3. During scrutiny, if the DEO finds that the expenditure in respect of any item or event as perthe Shadow Observation Register is higher than the figure reported by the candidate, and thenotices have not been issued by the RO earlier, then he will direct the RO to issue notice tosuch candidate mentioning such discrepancy and evidences gathered during the electionperiod. The DEO shall forward his scrutiny report with his comments after considering thereplies from such candidates. It may be ensured that the notices are served properly andacknowledgments are duly obtained. If the candidate fails to respond to the notice validlyserved on him within the time stipulated for this purpose in the notice, the DEO shall sendhis report to the Commission through CEO with his appropriate comments. Complaints withrespect to election expenditure and reports of inquiry on these complaints should also beconsidered during the scrutiny.11.4 The Expenditure Observer, during his third visit will report to the Commission in his 4 th andfinal report ( Annexure 5 ) and simultaneously he has to give his comments in theprescribed para and the DEO’s report based on the facts mentioned in the `ShadowObservation Register` and `Folder of Evidence`. He has to ensure that the same has beenincorporated in the DEO`s Scrutiny Report (Annexure 21). In case of any item ofexpenditure not considered in the DEO`s report, he will bring it to the notice of the DEOasking him to incorporate the same in his report to the Commission and make suitablecomments on the DEO’s report.Hence, DEO’s are advised to keep ready their respective scrutiny reports along with theShadow Observation Register, Folder of Evidence and other related documents, in respect ofall candidates before the 3 rd visit of Expenditure Observer for their comments on it.43