Eyebrows raised as govt skips tabling CAG report in House

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18

The state government is in the eye of a storm as it evaded tabling the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report for 2016-17 in the just-concluded Budget session of the legislature.

Instead of the full-fledged CAG report on the functioning of departments, the J&K Government tabled some accounts reports as a formality. Highly placed sources said the government had failed to respond to a large number of queries raised by the CAG regarding the “misdeeds” in various departments which had caused the delay in tabling the report.

On February 8, Minister of State for Finance Ajay Nanda on behalf of Minister for Finance Haseeb A Drabu tabled a copy of ‘Finance Accounts (Volume I) and (Volume II) for 2016-2017’. He also tabled a copy of Appropriate Accounts 2016-2017, Accounts at a Glance for 2016-17 and Annual Technical Inspection Report on Urban Local Bodies for the year ending March 31, 2016, in the Legislative Assembly.

The government has, however, evaded tabling the complete CAG report which has raised eyebrows.

Sources said many issues were pinpointed by the CAG while auditing the functioning of various departments but they were yet to be addressed by the departments concerned.

“For the first time, the CAG has minutely audited the functioning of various departments so the higher-ups are finding it difficult to address such issues,” a source said.

According to an official document in the possession of The Tribune, the CAG in its letter had sought clarification regarding irregularities in transportation of foodgrains in the offices of the Directorates of the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Kashmir and Jammu. As per the document, the clarifications sought were not given.

Sources said that during the audit, some irregularities were detected in the Power Development Department, Public Works Department, Public Health Engineering, Housing and Urban Development Department and Rural Development Department but the senior officials of the departments had not responded to the queries raised by the CAG.

“Unfruitful expenditures were detected in various departments,” a source said, adding, “the authorities have adopted a lackadaisical approach to answering the queries.”

As reported by The Tribune earlier, the Legislative Council secretariat in December 2017 had lodged a written complaint before the higher-ups against the “non-serious and indifferent approach” being adopted by the higher authorities of the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) Department in responding to the queries being raised by the Department Related Standing Committee (DRSC-I) of the Upper House.

Sources said in the reports of the Accountant General (Audit), bungling had been detected in the transportation and distribution of ration.

The House panel had sought clarification from the department regarding the misdeeds highlighted in the audit report but there had been no response.

Sources said the CAPD Department was not the only case, but most of the departments had failed to response to the queries regarding bungling pinpointed in the audit.