Directorate doesn’t have proper, functional website
Details of inspections, complaints not available in public domain
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 18: Even several months after the approval of the Administrative Council headed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, the Audit Offices in the districts have yet not been established by the Directorate of Audit and Inspections. Moreover, details of inspections being carried out and the handling of complaints are not available in the public domain mainly because Directorate doesn’t have proper and functional website.
The Administrative Council, the highest decision making body in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, in its meeting held on October 28, 2021 approved the strengthening of Audit and Inspections Directorate by creating 54 posts at various levels to ensure establishment of District Audit Offices.
It was stated by the Government at that time that decision is aimed at making the audit exercise more effective, decentralized and broad-based to enhance the coverage of Government offices and bringing accountability in the governance.
“As the Audit and Inspection Directorate is an empowered arm of the Government for internal audit of the Government departments and autonomous bodies, the decision will go a long way in holding periodically internal audit of various Government entities”, it was mentioned in the official handout, adding “the resources of the Directorate will be augmented to take follow up action on Audit Inspection Report by way of constituting Audit Analysis Monitoring and Follow Up Cells at Union Territory and Divisional Level”.
However, even after the lapse of several months the Audit Offices in the districts have not been established by the Directorate for the reasons best known to those at the helm of affairs in the establishment, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “the delay is notwithstanding the fact that such offices were required to be made functional in the shortest possible time for conducting the inspections and audits of the Government offices at the district level”.
When contacted, Director General Audit and Inspections Fayaz Ahmed Lone confirmed that Audit Offices have yet not been established in the districts but he declined to answer other queries. EXCELSIOR made several attempts to contact other officers in the Directorate to get the information but the Personal Assistant to the Director General said, “we are not supposed to give contact numbers of the officers to the media”.
Interestingly, the Directorate of Audit and Inspections doesn’t have functional and proper website despite the fact that orders in this regard were issued by the General Administration Department on the directions of the Lieutenant Governor a number of times so as to put maximum information in the public domain. This is also in violation of the provisions of the Right to Information Act, which lay thrust on maximum transparency and voluntary compliance.
A link to the website of Directorate of Audit and Inspections provided in the website of the Finance Department leads to opening of website of the State Taxes Department and this error has not been rectified since long.
“There is no information vis-à-vis inspections and audits conducted by the Directorate in the public domain. Moreover, how many complaints about the embezzlements, misappropriation and other grave financial irregularities handled by the Directorate and their outcome is not available in any forum for the information of general public”, sources said, adding “all this indicates that Directorate doesn’t want people to know about its functioning”.
The Directorate has the mandate to conduct Special/Detailed/Snap audit and inspections of the Government offices, departments, corporations, autonomous and statutory bodies and other Government aided institutions; yearly closing of cash books of the Drawing & Disbursing Officers (DDOs) mostly chest holders as on March 31 every year and obtaining of requisite information as per the devised memo for thorough scrutiny.
Moreover, the Directorate is required to verify the complaints from various quarters alleging embezzlements, misappropriations and other grave financial irregularities; verify liability claims of various offices as are being referred by the concerned Administrative Departments/ Finance Department and other assignments/ enquiries as are assigned to the Finance Department.
“With such a vast mandate how the Directorate can deprive people of the information remains a million dollar question”, sources said.
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