STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The P&RD (Panchayat & Rural Development Department) has not yet submitted UCs (utilisation certificates) of Rs. 3,885 crore of central funds meant for the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). With this, the authorities concerned cannot ascertain if the central funds were used for the very purposes for which they had been released.
The Central Government provides such grants for the PRIs under certain conditions: the state government should spend the fund for the very purpose of their release, and the unspent fund, if any, has to be surrendered duly. The State Government authorities who have received conditional grants are required to furnish formal utilisation certificates about the proper utilisation of such grants to the Accountant General within 12 months of the closure of the financial year in which the grants have been released.
The CAG, during the scrutiny, found that as of March 2021, there were 149 UCs amounting to Rs 3,885 crore outstanding for grants paid from 2001 to 2021 to the P&RD Department.
The PRIs bothered the least to reply to the audit observation of such grants for years and on. From 2016 to 2021, the PRIs have not replied to inspection reports and observations with a monetary value of Rs 2,673 crore. The CAG said that this is weakening the accountability mechanism of PRIs in Assam and recommended that the state government to include a statutory provision for the appointment of an Ombudsman and for the conduct of social audits to strengthen the accountability mechanism in PRIs.
The state has 2,145 PRIs that have financial irregularities, including non-maintenance of asset registers, non-conciliation of cash books, non-maintenance of stock registers, non-maintenance of accounts, etc. The non-maintenance of the stock register may lead to the misutilization of material intended for the implementation of schemes. Further, non-maintenance of registers of receipt books may lead to embezzlement or misappropriation of funds, the CAG said.
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