It is to be underlined to be believed that there are over 56 Autonomous Bodies in Jammu and Kashmir (and Ladakh) which have neither been audited nor financial status and position thereof on annual basis as per simple but mandatory rules documented and prepared. As many as over 811 annual accounts of such Bodies are pending for audits for the last more than four years, some accounts are not reconciled hence not submitted even for as long as 24 years. Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) ,for example, is reported to be ”unique” in not having submitted the accounts for audit since November 2009. Incredible , indeed.
The other part of the problem and loaded with more serious implications is no monitoring let alone taking of a strict action by the government against such habitual defaulting departments for keeping the position of accounts or that of public funds in a suspended unspecified manner so as to, at any point of time, not revealing the actual certified position of various heads of expenditures etc., in a quite authenticated manner which could be said to have been as per procedure had the same been submitted to the CAG and other authority for audit purposes. No regard is shown even for the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India treating such a scenario as ”serious financial irregularity”. Despite asking several times by the CAG for submission of final accounts, yet no one seems to be serious about that which raises certain fundamental questions all related to the most sensitive area of finances.
While before June every year , such financial accounts and statements are required to be submitted without fail by these Bodies , why they have, as a routine, been faltering in it and how it was allowed to take place ? When accounts of previous year are neither reconciled nor supposed and believed to having been annually closed and duly submitted , what opening balance and on which principle is carried forward for the next year to work with, may be explained and what guarantee is there about the authenticity and accuracy about such unaccounted and not finalised accounts? Is otherwise general inspection or some sort of appraisal of such Autonomous Bodies at some intervals not being conducted where it could get detected as to why audits have not taken place? In the broader sense, when accounts of as many autonomous bodies are not finalised and hence details of incomes (funds) from the government and expenditures not known , how the same is treated and what type of data is sent to be fed into the process of making the annual budget ?
How can , in any case , the fact that for as long as 19 years some PSUs , even many since their inception , have not been audited and who can certify with authority and authenticity that everything was ”normal and within procedural framework” in respect of financial matters in these institutions and there were no frauds, no embezzlements and no misappropriation of funds having taken place . Such a scenario is unbelievably allowed to ”sustain ” without any stringent measures taken and we urge the authorities to treat the matter very seriously and have the concerns of the CAG of India attended to and addressed within a given shortest timeframe as keeping any institution getting funds from government unaudited for years together is unacceptable , untenable and deserving action and fixing accountability.
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