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Govt cannot shirk responsibility: AG

By R Dutta Choudhury - 15 Sep 2010 12:00 AM GMT

GUWAHATI, Nov 28 � The Assam Government cannot shirk responsibility from the large-scale financial irregularities committed by the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council for years as it preferred to turn a blind eye to the major irregularities, while, the implementation of the schemes and projects was not monitored. This startling revelation came out in the report of the special audit carried out by the office of the Accountant General (AG).

The AG report, which is available with The Assam Tribune, said that the activities of the Council were not audited since 2006-07. The serious and persistent major irregularities brought to the notice of the Council and the Government of Assam in the previous audit reports remained unaddressed, the report said. As per the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India, the Council should submit the accounts in forms prescribed by the CAG and subject the same to be audited and to be placed in the Council. But the Council is irregular in preparing the accounts. The annual accounts only up to the year 2005-06 could be audited and submitted to the Governor of Assam. However, the audit reports only up to the year 2001-02 were placed before the Council.

In recent times, the Government of Assam has been claiming that it has no control over the financial matters of the Autonomous Council. But the AG audit report made it clear that the Government, in fact, had a major role to play in ensuring proper implementation of the schemes by the Council and thus the Government cannot shirk its responsibility if the schemes were not implemented properly.

The report said, �the Hill Areas Department of the State Government is the administrative department for the Council.� It is the responsibility of the department to ensure proper functioning of the Council including implementation of various programmes, schemes etc., by evaluation and monitoring. But during the audit, no record of evaluation and monitoring of implementation of schemes was found on record, the report said. The report clearly indicated that the Hill Areas Department of the Government of Assam failed in its responsibility of keeping a close watch on implementation of various schemes by the Council and it cannot ignore its responsibility for huge financial mismanagement over the years.

The audit report said that the deficiencies in the district fund rules (DFR) were responsible for financial mismanagement. A number of glaring inadequacies in the DFR were not attended to for years. There should have been a detailed procedure showing allotment of funds, exercising control as per budget, opening of bank account, system of placing requirement of funds etc but these were not strictly followed. The report also pointed out several other deficiencies in the DFR which need immediate attention to improve financial management of the Council. The report further said that the actual expenditures incurred by the DDOs and divisions out of the funds released to them remained un-accounted in the district fund. The district fund balance, in case of undisbursed fund at the disposal of the DDOs at the end of the year, if any, remains un-accounted in the books of the Council, the report added.