New Delhi: A damning Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on Gujarat's construction worker welfare system has revealed a state of near-total paralysis, with its primary welfare board operating without proper members since 2017 and a staggering 72% of its regular staff positions lying vacant.

The audit, tabled in the Gujarat Assembly, exposes a deep governance collapse. The BOCW Welfare Board, legally required to represent workers and employers, has been run by a single government bureaucrat for five years. Compounding this, its expert advisory committee – mandated to guide policy – has been entirely absent since 2011.

This institutional breakdown has led to severe financial mismanagement of funds meant for the state's most vulnerable labourers. Of the Rs 4,787.6 crore collected in welfare cess since 2006, the CAG found that 47%, amounting to nearly Rs 2,243 crore, remains stuck and unused in government accounts. A formal welfare fund was never established, and the cess was instead diverted, with only half the total amount ever being released to the Board.

The report highlights that this paralysis has crippled field operations. A 42% vacancy at the inspector level has left districts without key enforcement officials. This staff shortage occurred even as the number of construction establishments in the state surged six-fold between 2017 and 2022, leaving a growing workforce unprotected.

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