The Finance department has issued a fresh warning to State public sector undertakings (PSUs) and autonomous organisations to avoid delays in keeping their accounts updated and in submitting them for audit.
Lapses in this regard will be viewed seriously by the government and could lead to denial of government grants, a circular issued by Rajesh Kumar Singh, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance), said.
The Principal Accountant General had asked the Chief Secretary to direct autonomous bodies, PSUs and departmental commercial undertakings to clear backlogs in finalisation of their accounts and send them for audit.
CAG report
In November 2021, Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) audit report on State finances for the year that ended on March 31, 2020, had pointed out that the Finance department ''may consider evolving a system to expedite the process of compilation and submission of annual accounts by autonomous bodies and departmentally run undertakings in order to assess their financial position. The report, tabled in the Assembly, observed that in the case of 21 autonomous bodies, the backlog in submitting accounts ranged from one to six years.
''In the absence of timely finalisation of accounts, results of the investment of the government remain outside the purview of the State Legislature and escape scrutiny by audit,'' the CAG had said, adding that delays in this regard render the system vulnerable to the risk of fraud and leakage of public money.
In 2017, the State government had directed department secretaries to ensure that PSUs under their control kept their accounts up to date and filed them for audit on time. They were warned that failure to do so would force the government to withhold grants and government guarantees. In February this year, the government reminded PSUs and autonomous organisations to keep the accounts updated, failing which action would be initiated against the Finance Officers concerned.
