Against the availability of grants to the tune of Rs 8866.84 crore, only
a sum of Rs 5,569.03 crore was utilised in the Panchayat Samities
Bhubaneswar: The Directorate of Local Fund Audit in its 2016-17 report has detected several discrepancies in financial management by various Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) at the grassroots level, including misappropriation of funds, non-collection of revenue, poor expenditure and non-preparation of budget among others.
The report released during the recently concluded winter session of the state Assembly states that as against the availability of grants to the tune of Rs 8866.84 crore, only a sum of Rs 5,569.03 crore was utilised in the Panchayat Samities, while Utilisation Certificates to the tune of a whooping Rs 11,594 crore remained outstanding for submission during 2015-16 fiscal.
The report pointed out misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 1.62 crore by fraudulent means such as non-credit and double payments. It warned that, “In 72 Panchayat Samitis, 507 bank accounts involving money to the tune of Rs 71.56 crore has been kept outside the domain of these samiits — which is grossly irregular and can be misappropriated in future.”
The report further pointed out that government dues such as VAT, royalty, labour cess, professional tax and income tax to the tune of Rs 83.45 crore was lying unremitted with the Panchayat Samities as of March 2016 in the 2015-16 fiscal.
Moreover, the report highlighted that the MPLAD and MLALAD funds were mostly remained untilised by the Panchayat Samitis in the same fiscal.
“Out of the available amount of Rs 213 crore, only Rs 100 crore MPLAD funds could be utilised and the rest remained unspent. On the other hand, out of MLALAD funds worth Rs 310 crore, only Rs 133 crore was utilized, while Rs 176 crore was lying unspent.”
The audit report suggested that the utilisation of MPLAD and MLALAD funds by these Panchyati Raj institutions was only 46.83 per cent and 43.14 per cent respectively.
The report said that out of the 4,902 Gram Panchayats audited, no budget was prepared by 4,637 GPs in contravention to Orissa Gram Panchayat Rules, 2014.
PNN