AG conveys serious concern over non-cooperation
Disobedience leaves enough scope for malpractices
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 8: Majority of the Government departments particularly Roads and Buildings in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have been creating obstacles in the conduct of audit of expenditure by the Accountant General despite repeated instructions from the Finance Department about extension of full cooperation.
This has come to the fore from an official communiqué of the Accountant General (Audit) to the Financial Commissioner to Government, Finance Department Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR.
The Accountant General (Audit) vide letter No.FAW/CORD/14-02/19-20/1133 has intimated to the Finance Department of Union Territory Government that copies of the contracts and agreements relating to Public Works and Civil Departments are required to be submitted to his office for detailed examination. However, he has pointed out that the copies are not endorsed to his office leading to major snag in conducting audit of the expenditure.
He has further stated that scrutiny of the contracts and agreements entered into by the departments on behalf of the Government constitutes one of the important functions of the Audit office. “The objective of such a scrutiny is to see whether the contracts or agreements have not led to loss or wastage of public money and also to ensure that the rules and regulations provide reasonable security against malpractices”, read the communication of the Accountant General (Audit).
It has also been pointed out in the letter that in order to conduct the audit of these vital documents, an audit party was deputed for collecting the copies of contracts and agreements from the Heads of the Departments of all the Public Works Departments and Civil Departments for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 financial years.
Taking note of the communication of the Accountant General (Audit), the Director General, Accounts and Treasuries, Finance Department M Y Pandith has asked all the Administrative Secretaries to impress upon the Heads of the Departments under their administrative control to provide copies of the contracts/agreements to the visiting audit parties and also extend full cooperation to them.
“They may also be directed to ensure that the copies of all contracts and procurement orders are invariably endorsed to the office of the Accountant General (Audit)”, read the circular issued by the Director General, Accounts and Treasuries, the copy of which is also available with EXCELSIOR.
“It is not for the first time that Accountant General (Audit) has conveyed serious concern over non-cooperation from the departments”, sources said while disclosing that similar communications were dashed to the Finance Department in the past also.
Had there been full cooperation from the departments in the form of voluntary submission of copies of contracts and agreements, the Accountant General (Audit) would not have brought the issue to the notice of the Finance Department.
“Non-submission of copies of contracts and agreements to Accountant General (Audit) leads to enough chances of malpractices remaining undetected, which otherwise are required to be checked in order to ensure financial discipline in the departments”, sources said.
They further said, “not only copies of contracts and agreements, the Accountant General (Audit) is also not receiving timely and appropriate replies from the departments on the audit observations/paragraphs contained in different reports of the Comptroller and Audit General of India”.
It is pertinent to mention here that Accountant General (Audit) J&K vide Communication No. Rep/2-5/2018-19/415 dated January 8, 2019 had conveyed his serious concern over in-action on the audit paragraphs to the Chief Secretary.
“Despite the instructions of the Finance Department dated June 9, 1997 and of General Administration Department dated July 26, 2017, there has not been any significant improvement in the responsiveness of the Executive”, the Accountant General had conveyed to the Chief Secretary while seeking his intervention.
Acting on the request of the AG, the General Administration Department, on the instructions of the Chief Secretary, issued a Circular No.09 dated February 14, 2019 asking the Administrative Secretaries to take immediate measures and have Action Taken Notes on the audit paragraphs featuring in the audit reports for the period 2000-01 to 2015-16 furnished to the Accountant General without any further delay.
“It is hoped that latest instructions of the Finance Department on the concern of Accountant General (Audit) would be taken seriously by the departments and necessary cooperation is extended for the audit”, sources said.
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