GUWAHATI, July 19 � The failure of the Government of Assam to maintain strict financial discipline is evident from the fact that so far it has not been able to file replies to more than 26,000 cases of irregularities identified by the Office of the Accountant General. The Office of the Accountant General has been submitting reminders to the Government from time to time and in about more than 70 percent of the cases, the Government has not even submitted the first reply.
Highly placed official sources told The Assam Tribune that only recently the office of the AG submitted a detailed list of pending cases to the Government. Though the exact estimate of money involved in the cases referred to by the AG is yet to be ascertained, it is suspected the amount would be at least around Rs 8,000 crore.
Official sources said that the cases not only included irregular financial handlings, but also of misappropriation, embezzlement etc and more than 20 cases referred to are of �very serious nature�. The officers of the AG also had a meeting with senior officials of the State Government recently in this regard, sources admitted.
When the last report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) was placed in the State Assembly during the Budget Session, the number of pending cases was 25,883 pertaining to the civil departments, Public Health Engineering Department, Public Works Department, Irrigation Department, Inland water Transport Department, Flood Control (Water Resources) Department, etc and the number has now increased to more than 26,000 because of the failure of the concerned departments to give satisfactory replies to the same.
Giving an account of the system of AG audit, sources revealed that the office of the AG conducts periodical inspection of the Government departments to test check the transactions and verify maintenance of records. Whenever important irregularities are detected during inspection, which are not settled on the spot, inspection reports are issued to the heads of the concerned offices with a copy to the next higher authorities. Orders of the Government in 1986 provided for prompt response to the inspection reports submitted by the AG to ensure rectification. A half yearly report of the pending inspection reports are sent to the Commissioners and Secretaries of the Departments concerned. Sources said that though the Government departments should send the first replies to the inspection reports within six weeks, such reports are pending in government departments for years. There are instances of the inspection reports pending with the Government for more than a decade, sources admitted.
Sources admitted that the performance of the Assam Government in prompt dealing of the inspection reports of the AG is one of the worst in the country. However, there is very little the AG office can do in this regard. The duty of the AG office is to point out the irregularities and it is for the Government to act on the same to avoid loss of public money, sources added. Sources further said that the inspection reports are sent to the concerned Government departments and only the final audit report is placed in the State Assembly for a thorough scrutiny by the Public Accounts Committee of the State Assembly.
It may be mentioned here that in its last report, the CAG had recommended that the Government should review the matter of pending inspection reports and the irregularities pointed out in those to ensure that an effective system exists. The CAG further said in its report that action should be taken against defaulting officers who failed to send replies on time and action should also be taken to recover the losses in a time bound manner. The Government should also revamp the system to ensure prompt and timely response to the audit observations, the CAG report said. However, till date no effective step has been taken by the Government, and the number of pending cases is growing with every passing year.
