Post News Network
Bhubaneswar: The state government failed to deposit Utilisation Certificates (UCs) for expenditures worth nearly Rs 30,000 crore in respect of grant-in aid it received from the Centre as of March 2015. Out of this, the government didn’t have assurance and account of utilisation for a whopping Rs 20,940crore.
This was revealed by a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India report on ‘state finances for the year ended March 2015’. The central auditor came down heavily on the state government for such humungous amount of pending UCs. The CAG report, laid by finance minister Pradip Kumar Amat in the assembly Monday said, “UCs for `20,940 crore remained outstanding against 33 grantee institutions as of March 2015 and the state government has no assurance and account utilization of this amount.” “Besides, UCs for expenditures worth Rs 8,561 crore were pending against 31 departments,” it pointed out.
The CAG said major defaulting departments were panchayati raj department with Rs 7,609.65 crore, planning and coordination department Rs 3,306.66 crore, housing and urban development department Rs 2,365.87 crore, school and mass education department Rs 1,508.11 crore, revenue and disaster management department Rs 1,185 crore, ST,SC & minorities and backward class development department Rs 1,054.61 crore, health and family welfare department Rs 889.43 crore and water resources department Rs 592.81 crore.
“They added up to Rs 18,512.60 crore which works out to 88.41 per cent of the total outstanding UCs of Rs 20,940.07crore,” CAG said, adding the huge pendency was mainly on account of non-adherence to existing instructions in Orissa General Financial Rule.
The CAG said, such delays are prone to fraudulent expenditure/transactions, diversion of funds and creation of fake assets for which responsibility would be apportionable on Chief Controlling Officer cum Heads of Department.”
It further came down on the government over a large amount of unspent money worth Rs1,146 crore lying in 865 personal deposit (PD) accounts which was not credited back to government account.
“Labour cess amounting to Rs 773 crore was lying in commercial bank accounts and was not deposited either in consolidated fund or in public account,” the auditor highlighted. Meanwhile, the CAG pointed out that the state government had failed to avail a grant of Rs1,049.15 crore due to non-fulfillment of conditions laid down by 13th Finance Commission. It said repayments of public debt went up by Rs1,818 crore during 2014-15.
Stating that the budget couldn’t be implemented due to lack of prior planning, CAG said overall savings by the state government were Rs 18,775 crore in 2014-15 which was mainly due to non-implementation of schemes and less requirement of funds.