GUWAHATI, Jan 17 � The Assam Government has not yet been able to reply to the audit observations of the office of the Accountant General involving expenditure of Rs 5371.39 crore despite the fact that such observations are required to be attended by the departments concerned within one month.
The latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) revealed that the office of the AG conducts periodical inspection of the Government offices to test check the transactions and verify the records according to prescribed rules and procedures. The inspection reports are issued to the heads of departments with a copy to the government. A half yearly report of the pending inspection reports is sent to the Commissioners and Secretaries of the departments concerned to facilitate proper monitoring of the audit observations.
But as of May, 2010, as many as 4905 inspection reports and 25,880 paragraphs involving expenditure of Rs 5371.39 crore are pending for settlement, CAG said in its report. The reports said that the inspection reports and paragraphs are error signals to which a State Government should be sensitive to ensure that the errors are comprehensively dealt with and those responsible for such errors are held responsible. Moreover, the sensitivity of the Government to such inspection reports proves its resolve to deliver good governance. But, the Assam Government's lack of sensitivity to the inspection reports did not infuse the desired confidence in its people and legislature, the report added.
The report revealed that a number of inspection reports and paragraphs are pending with the Government for years and 514 inspection reports were added to the long list in the year 2009-10.
Meanwhile, the CAG report revealed that non-existence of internal audit wings in most of the departments of the Assam Government led to serious financial irregularities in the last several years.
The report pointed out that every Government department should have an internal audit system, but in Assam, internal audit wings have been set up only in 19 departments, but such wings are not functioning properly. The functioning of the wings is confined mainly to accounting work and they do not have a manual or stated mandate.
CAG test checked the functioning of the internal audit wings of five departments and the check revealed that no such wing existed in Public Health Engineering (PHE) and Cooperation Departments. The Accounts Officers posted in the Chief Engineer's office and divisions under the PHE by the Finance Department are mainly engaged in accounting works. In other three departments test checked-Agriculture, Industries and Commerce and Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, though audit wings existed, their activities were very limited. The two internal auditors posted in the Veterinary department did not conduct any audit. One officer from Assam Finance Service and seven to eight departmental assistants of the audit wing posted in Agriculture Department carried out only six percent, of the auditable units during the period from 2001 to 2006. Same is the situation in the Industries and Commerce Department where the audit wing carried out audit of only one of the 27 auditable units in 2007-08, CAG pointed out in its report.