*No action on over 43000 Inspection Reports/Audit Paras
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 12: Shocking it may sound but it is a harsh reality that Jammu and Kashmir Government has shut eye towards serious financial irregularities and subsequent loss to the exchequer despite being aware of the fact that such activities impede implementation of various programmes and activities designed for the welfare of the common masses.
During the last few years, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has reported on several significant deficiencies in implementation of various programmes and activities as well as on the quality of internal controls in many departments of J&K Government, which have negative impact on the success of programmes and functioning of the departments.
The focus was on auditing the specific programmes/ schemes and to offer suitable recommendations to the executive for taking corrective action and improving service delivery to the citizens.
It is pertinent to mention here that audit process starts with the risk assessment of various departments, criticality of activities, level of delegated financial powers, internal controls and concerns of stakeholders and previous audit findings.
After completion of audit, Inspection Report containing audit findings is issued to the head of the office with the request to furnish replies within one month. The draft audit paragraphs proposed for inclusion in the report of CAG are forwarded by the Accountant General (Audit) to the Principal Secretaries/Secretaries of the departments concerned for response within six weeks.
During 2014-15, compliance audit of 1070 Drawing and Disbursing Officers of the State and 12 autonomous bodies was conducted by the office of the Accountant General (Audit), J&K. Besides, four Performance Audits were also conducted during this period.
Four Performance Audits and 34 paragraphs proposed to be included in the CAG report for the year ended March 31, 2015 were sent to the Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries of the respective departments. However, replies in respect of one Performance Audit and 23 paragraphs were received.
The audit findings involving recoveries that came to the notice in the course of test audit of accounts of the departments of J&K Government were referred to various departmental Drawing and Disbursing Officers for confirmation and further necessary action. However, the Government shut the eye towards effecting recoveries.
This can be gauged from the fact that during 2014-15, CAG pointed out recoveries worth Rs 1365.55 crore—Rs 1298.06 crore in audit report and Rs 67.49 crore in Inspection Reports. Though the concerned departments accepted the recoveries pointed out by the CAG but when it came to effecting recoveries they adopted completely lackadaisical approach. As per the official data, an amount of Rs 29.05 crore was recovered as against Rs 1365.55 crore pointed out by the CAG. In this way whopping amount remained unrealized.
The Hand Book of Instructions for speedy settlement of Audit observations/Inspection Reports issued by the Government provides for prompt response by the executive to the Inspection Reports issued by the Accountant General (Audit) to ensure remedial/rectification action in compliance with the prescribed rules and procedures and accountability for the deficiencies, lapses etc brought out in the Inspection Reports.
The heads of the offices and next higher authorities are required to comply with the observations contained in the Inspection Reports and rectify the defects promptly and report their compliance to the Accountant General (Audit).
However, there is no strict compliance to these instructions by majority of the J&K Government departments. This is evident from the data, which indicates that action on 4927 Inspection Reports and 34090 audit paragraphs was awaited as on March 31, 2015.
“The pendency of large number of paragraphs of serious financial irregularities and loss to the Government even after being pointed out in audit, indicates lack of response of the Government departments to audit”, the CAG has regretted in its latest report.
It has again suggested that Government shall look into the matter with utmost seriousness and revamp the system to ensure proper response to the audit observations from the departments in a time-bound manner.
“By not effecting the recoveries as pointed out by the CAG and by not initiating action on the Inspection Reports and Audit paragraphs, the Government has sent a signal very clear that it remains non-serious towards financial irregularities worth crores of rupees”, sources remarked.
Follow our WhatsApp channel