The mushroom growth of ``fake'' voluntary organisations (VOs) has marred the implementation of various Government schemes meant for providing safe drinking water and sanitation for thousands of household below the poverty line all over the country.

Thanks to the alleged nexus between senior officials and monitoring authorities of the Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology under the Ministry of Rural Area and Employment and the VOs.

Council, however, claimed to have handed over at least 67 such cases to the CBI for probe and initiated departmental inquiriesagainst over 50 officials for releasing Rs 143 lakh to VOs in Bihar, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, who did not even exists.

Making starling disclosure, the Comptroller and Auditor General, in its report said that Council's deputy director general sanctioned 323 projects worth Rs 11.47 crore during the last month of his tenure. Out of which 111 projects involving Rs 4.31 crore were sanctioned on his last working days, indicating ``weakness'' in the system of project appraisal.

Expressing dissatisfaction over its functioning and misappropriation of funds, it said that majority of the projects were sanctioned without verifying their eligibility, creditability, professional competence of the VOs and also genuineness of the documents. ``Because of the laxity in sanctioning and monitoring, fake VOs managed to get funds regularly,'' it said.

Pulling up the council, the report said that since its inception in 1986, only 14,082 projects (8 per cent) involving Rs 224.07 crore were completed till July last yearwhile 95 per cent of the projects were of short term ranging between six months and one year. ``Fifteen to 47 per cent of grants remained unspent at the end of each year between 1991-97,'' it revealed.

The report said, ``75 VOs which were members of various committees of the council cornered 677 projects worth Rs 40 crore.'' One VO in Bihar was sanctioned five projects within three months followed by another seven projects after a lapse of two months. Gramodya, a UP based VO was sanctioned three projects of Rs 3.08 lakh before completion of mandatory period. It, however, claimed to have blacklisted 248 VOs in 16 states for misusing Rs 2.42 crore.