‘No action on deficiencies in implementation of schemes’
Asks for framing committees to monitor progress
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 31: In a major embarrassment for J&K Government, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has pointed out that majority of the departments and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) are not taking audit observations seriously even after explicit directives from the Finance Department. Moreover, no action has been taken on deficiencies pointed out in the implementation of programmes and schemes during the last few years.
In its latest report, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said, “in the last few years, audit has reported on several significant deficiencies in implementation of various programmes/ activities as well as on the quality of internal controls in selected departments which have a negative impact on the success of programmes and functioning of the departments”.
“The focus was on auditing specific programmes/schemes in order to offer suitable recommendations to the executive for taking corrective action and improving service delivery to the citizens”, the report said, adding “the draft audit paragraphs proposed for inclusion in the report are forwarded by the Principal Accountant General (Audit) to the Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries of the Department concerned drawing their attention to the audit findings and requesting them to send their response within six weeks”.
The CAG said, “the fact of non-receipt of replies from the departments/ Government is invariably indicated at the end of such paragraphs included in the audit report. In the report on Social, General and Economic (Non-PSUs) sectors for the year ended 31st March 2019, 23 paragraphs were sent to the Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries of the respective departments. However, replies in respect of nine paragraphs included in the latest report were not received till September 2020”.
The Hand Book of Instructions for speedy settlement of audit observations/ Inspection Reports (IRs) issued by the Government (Finance Department) provides for prompt response by the executive to IRs issued by the Principal Accountant General (Audit) to ensure remedial/ rectification action in compliance with the prescribed rules and procedures.
Moreover, the heads of offices and next higher authorities are required to comply with the observations contained in the IRs and rectify the defects and report their compliance to the Principal Accountant General (Audit). However, based on the results of test audit, 49,523 audit observations contained in 11,531 IRs were outstanding as on 31st March 2019.
“The pendency of large number of paragraphs indicates lack of adequate response of the Government departments to audit”, the CAG said, adding “the Government should look into this matter seriously and revamp the system to ensure proper response to the audit observations from the departments in a time-bound manner”.
“Further, only two Audit Committee meetings were held during 2018-19 in which 28 audit paragraphs were settled which constitute 0.06 per cent of the pending objections as on March 2019”, the supreme audit institution of the country pointed out and stressed that the respective departments should constitute audit committees, hold its meetings and monitor the progress of settlement of paragraphs.
In order to ensure accountability of the executive to issues dealt with in various audit reports, the Finance Department issued instructions in June 1997 to the administrative departments to furnish suo-motu Action Taken Notes (ATNs) to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC)/ Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU) on all the audit paragraphs featuring in the audit reports, irrespective of whether these are taken up for discussion by these committees or not. These ATNs are required to be submitted to these committees duly vetted by the Principal Accountant General (Audit) within a period of three months from the date of presentation of audit reports in the Legislature.
However, it has been noticed by the CAG that out of 4955 audit paragraphs featuring in the Civil Chapters of audit reports from 2000-01 to 2015-16, suo-motu ATNs in respect of 146 audit paragraphs had not been received up to September 30, 2020.
“Out of 495 audit paragraphs featuring in the Civil Chapters of audit reports for the years from 2000-01 to 2015-16, only 245 audit paragraphs have been discussed by the PAC up to March 31, 2020”, the CAG said, adding “recommendations in respect of 223 audit paragraphs have been made by the PAC. However, ATNs on the recommendations of the committees are pending from the Government of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in respect of 165 paragraphs”.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
