The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has criticised the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for discrepancies in data management of Aadhaar
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The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has criticised the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for discrepancies in data management of Aadhaar.
In its audit report on the functioning of the UIDAI, the CAG has criticised the authority for “deficient data management” as in some cases data of Aadhaar card holders have not been matched with their Aadhaar numbers even after 10 years.
UIDAI is the statutory authority established in 2016 to issue Aadhaar to all residents of the country. As of October 31, 2021, UIDAI had issued 131.68 crore Aadhaar numbers, according to a report by the Indian Express.
Let’s take a look at the list of problems CAG has found against UIDAI:
In its 180-page report, the CAG has said that there are issues of data-matching, errors in authentication, and shortfall in archiving.
Apart from the mismatching of data with Aadhaar numbers, the CAG also criticised the lack of a system to analyse the factors leading to authentication errors.
It said that even though UIDAI was maintaining one of the largest biometric databases in the world, it did not have a data archiving policy, which is considered “a vital storage management best practice”.
“UIDAI provided Authentication services to banks, mobile operators and other agencies free of charge till March 2019, contrary to the provisions of their own Regulations, depriving revenue to the Government,” the CAG noted.
Duplication of Aadhaar
The CAG registered instances of issuance of Aadhaars with the same biometric data to different individuals indicating flaws in the de-duplication process and issue of Aadhaars on faulty biometrics and documents.
The ‘de-duplication process’ remained vulnerable for generating multiple Aadhaar numbers and manual interventions had to be done to resolve the problem, the report, tabled in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, said.
As per information provided by UIDAI Tech Centre, nearly 4.75 lakh duplicate Aadhaar numbers were cancelled as of November 2019.
The data indicated that on an average, no less than 145 Aadhaars generated in a day during the period of nine years since 2010, were duplicate numbers requiring cancellation.
It suggested that the UIDAI needs to strengthen the Automated Biometric Identification System, so that generation of duplicate Aadhaars can be curbed at the initial stage itself.
Bal Aadhaar
CAG also slammed UIDAI over avoidable expenditure on the issue of ‘Bal Aadhaars’.
“Issue of Aadhaar numbers to minor children below the age of five, based on the biometrics of their parents, without confirming uniqueness of biometric identity goes against the basic tenet of the Aadhaar Act,” it said.
It said that apart from violating the statutory provisions, UIDAI also incurred avoidable expenditure of Rs 310 crore on issuance of Bal Aadhaars till 31 March, 2019.
In the second phase of ICT assistance, a further sum of about Rs 288 crore was released up to the year 2020-21 to states/ schools primarily for the issue of Aadhaars to minor children.
The CAG suggested that since the Supreme Court has stated that no benefit will be denied to any child for the lack of Aadhaar document, UIDAI needs to establish alternate ways to determine the unique identity of children below five years.
Data protection
CAG also said UIDAI should frame a suitable data archival policy to mitigate the risk of vulnerability to data protection.
“UIDAI may levy penalties on biometric service providers for deficiencies in their performance in respect of biometric de-duplication… and biometric authentication… agreements in this regard should be modified, if required,” the report said.
With inputs from agencies
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