GUWAHATI, Dec 2 � The failure of the Assam Government to play its part in unearthing the financial scam in North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council is evident from the fact that it failed to respond to the queries of the Accountant General (AG) during the special audit of the accounts of the Council.
Highly placed official sources told The Assam Tribune that the special inspection of the accounts of the Autonomous Council was carried out under special circumstances and the office of the AG submitted its preliminary report to the Government way back in August this year. But the State Government did not respond to the queries made by the AG in the preliminary report.
Sources said that the office of the AG sent repeated reminders to the Assam Government to respond to the queries made in the preliminary report. Sources revealed that letters were even written to the State Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretaries of the concerned departments but the Government did not reply.
Ultimately, the AG sent its �detailed report� to the Assam Government as well as to the Government of India on October 7 this year and even after that, the State Government did not clarify the issues raised in the special audit report.
It may be mentioned here that the State and Central Governments ordered the special audit of the accounts of the NC Hills Autonomous Council following allegations of large scale irregularities. The AG office formed a special team of officers for the purpose but the whole exercise was delayed because of the failure of the Government and the Council to produce the relevant records on time.
In fact, in its special audit report itself, the AG mentioned clearly that initially a plan was made to carry out the audit during the period from November 23 last year to January 13 this year. But the process was delayed because of the failure of the Government and Council to produce the records and finally the audit was carried out during the period from May 12 to July 2 this year.
It may be mentioned here that in a Press conference yesterday, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi claimed that the Government and the Council would submit para wise replies and response to the report and the AG would finalize the report after getting the views of the Government and Council. But it is clear that the Government failed to submit its replies to the preliminary report of the AG on time.
Official sources also pointed out that the special audit should not be equated with the routine audit carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). During the routine audits carried out every year, the CAG sends queries to the concerned departments of the Government and the final report is prepared after getting the replies. Sometimes, the Government takes a long time to respond to the queries made by the CAG during the routine audit. But this was a special audit which was to be completed within a specific time frame.
