Whether it is the issue of non-utilization of funds by various Departments of the Union Territory or non-transparent and irregular expenditures or even unsatisfactory implementation of various welfare schemes of the Government, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has pointed out certain glaring discrepancies which need to be addressed. At the outset, we may clear this misnomer and ill conceived notion that not spending and not using the allotted funds was not any positive and appreciable gesture on the part of the concerned authority and in no way meant anything other than incompetence and not being able to take a financial decision . Like this, not only does a particular scheme or a project suffer but keeping the scarce funds idle were proving to the detriment of some other project which could have benefitted from such funds. Allocation of funds is being done in almost professional and judicious manner which should not meet the fate of not spending. Why could not the Education Department spend the funds released by the State Project Director Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and thus Rs.22 crore got blocked must be clarified.
The same scenario is true of other wings of the Education Department about the working of which in respect of financial matters and handling thereof , the CAG has pointed irregularities whether on account of procedural reasons or otherwise which need to be addressed. About the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority in the Forest Ecology and Environment Department has been found faltering in not making satisfactory surveys in respect of preparation of Annual Plan of Operation for identifying degraded forests. Non availability of the requisite data meant preparing plans hypothetically. Thus the fate of the forest land measuring 2758 hectares diverted for non-forest uses hangs in balance. More serious irregularity in respect of CAMPA funds are that those were not spent on specific purposes but on office equipment, furniture and fixtures. Non submission of Utilization Certificates (UCs) is found by the CAG as something of a common practice which needs to be viewed seriously looking to various inherent apprehensions attached with such non-submission. In the same way, working of various other departments has been critically commented upon with facts and figures by the CAG which must be attended to by the respective departments but an authority over them must duly monitor the levels of compliance of the CAG report to prevent repetition of such irregularities.
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