CAG finds financial irregularities of over Rs 2200 crore in Uttarakhand
The government has lost Rs 2,271 crore till 31 March 2018 due to the negligent actions of various departments and public sector undertakings of the state government. This disclosure has been made by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. The state government placed this CAG report on the floor of the House on Tuesday.
The report has revealed serious irregular financial activities of departments like Energy, Food and Supplies, Social Welfare, Medical Health and Forest related to the schemes related to the people of the state. Due to these disturbances, where the government suffered financial loss of hundreds of crores of rupees, the beneficiaries also could not get full benefits of the schemes.
For instance, under the old age pension scheme of Social Welfare Department, 34552 beneficiaries were not paid pension installments on time nor did they get arrears of Rs 15.25 crore. The reason for departmental negligence was that pension was distributed to the dead too. The CAG also highlighted the fact that the Medical and Health Department did not recover crores of rupees from the doctors who broke the contract and disappeared from duty.
Apart from this, despite having funds in the account, the Food and Supplies Department took a loan from the RBI, due to which it had to pay an interest of 19.35 crore. At the same time, 0.63 lakh metric tonnes of rice and 0.23 lakh metric tonnes of wheat was distributed more than the actual requirement and hit a loss of about Rs 149 crore. The biggest financial loss has been revealed in the Forest and Environment Department. The department incurred financial loss of Rs 901.34 crore in different cases. Add to this the irregularity of the State Forest Development Corporation, then the loss of the entire department reaches 905.82 crore.
Financial irregularities in major departments
Department – Money (in crore)
Forest – 905.82
Food & Supplies – 172.79
Energy – 229.22
Social Welfare – 81.58
Medical Health – 18.00
Mining – 5.94
Higher Education – 2.59
Home – 3.17
PWD – 1.69
Note: The funds of other departments and PSUs are different.
CAG gave these suggestions
Finance Management
1. The government should investigate the reasons for shortfall in own tax revenue and take measures for resource improvement. Brought down the fiscal deficit to 3.25 percent of GDP.
2. Government can increase its capital expenditure
3. The government, which is investing money in public enterprises of the state, should find out how to take profit from them.
4. Completion of incomplete projects on time and ensure that there is no additional expenditure on further plans
5. State government can allocate more funds in health sector
6. Provide interest at the applicable rate of GPF
Budget management
1. The government should make its spending budget more stringent so that it can avoid extra expenditure in grants and appropriation.
2. The government should decide that the money taken from the contingency fund should be returned on time and this money should be used only for contingency work.
On one hand, the state government is spending crores of rupees in the protection of forests. On the other hand, due to negligence, the Forest Department is also losing few opportunities for earning. As a result, the Forest Department also lost Rs 530.47 crore. According to the CAG report, the forest department failed to make many working plans in time. The extent of this was that the department did not make any plan for pruning the sal forests. The forest department of sal wood in the state allows commercial use. Sal tree needs enough sunlight.
In such a situation, the quality of sal forests is also being affected due to lack of pruning. The CAG has also questioned the internal audit of the forest department. The CAG observed that arrears of Rs 19.05 crore were not recovered in 11 forest divisions. 2308 crime cases were pending at departmental level in eight forest divisions. There were 1025 cases in which proceedings were pending for three years.
There was encroachment on 9053.21 hectares of forest land in 11 forest divisions. The process of regularizing 125.56 hectares of encroached forest land started in 2001. In 121 cases, the court had ordered removal of the encroachment but the department did not take any action. In January 2019, the Forest Department had informed that action is being taken to remove the encroachment.
