The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has said that the budgetary assumptions of the government were not realistic during 2019-20 and control over the execution of monitoring of budget was inadequate.
The CAG, in its report tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday, said supplementary grants/appropriations were obtained without adequate justification and in some cases, despite the legislature not approving supplementary provision, expenditure was incurred. Savings were neither surrendered on time nor were explanations provided to the Accountant General for variations in expenditure.
“The State government has been persistently incurring excess expenditure over authorisation during the last few years which is a cause of concern,” the CAG said. While excess expenditure of ₹84,650 crore incurred during the last five years was yet to be regularised by the legislature, ₹ 2,084.03 crore was incurred during 2019-20 without budgetary provision “which undermines the authority of the State Legislature”.
Departments were not cautioned against persistent savings nor were their budgets varied in accordance with their ability to absorb allocations. Due diligence was not carried out for drawal of advances from the contingency fund. These advances were not fully utilised for the intended purpose nor were these fully recouped within the financial year.
Utilisation of budgetary provision under four socio-economic grants was less than 50 % of the allocation during the period 2016-19 which affected the socio-economic development in the State.
The CAG was critical about the quality of accounts and financial reporting practices. Funds pertaining to the State Compensatory Afforestation Fund (SCAF) which should have been maintained in public account were parked in banks in violation of the rules governing the accounting and maintenance of such funds. “The Government did not discharge its interest liability over the funds lying in State Disaster Response Fund,” the CAG said.
The CAG faulted the government on the PD accounts claiming that operation of PD accounts lacked transparency. Contrary to government instructions, substantial funds from PD accounts were transferred to bank accounts and taken out of government accounts and “consequently, out of oversight of the legislature”.
Claiming that the State government was yet to comply with Indian government accounting standards, the CAG said indiscriminate operation of omnibus Minor Head 800 – Other Receipts and Other Expenditure affected transparency in financial reporting and obscured proper analysis of allocative priorities and quality of expenditure. Non-submission of utilisation certificates and detailed contingent charges bills by departments for funds drawn for specific developmental programmes/projects was violative of prescribed financial rules and directives and point to inadequate internal controls and deficient monitoring mechanism of the government.
“Non reconciliation of receipts and expenditure booked by the controlling officers of the State with figures of the Accountant General reflects poorly on the internal control system within the government and “raises concerns relating to accuracy of accounts”.
