CAG report out – all is not well in Sikkim As per the article 151 of the Indian constitution, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on State Finances placed its audit reports on accounts to Governor of Sikkim, who causes them to be laid on the table of the Vidhan Sabha on March 29, 2011. Press Conference was orgainsed at CAG office, Sikkim where these reports were made public to media. Accountant General Dinesh Bhagata read the summary of the report. He mentioned that “Dependency on the funds from Central government is the major reason to worry. Even the planning commission is taking a note of it”. CAG reports on the Government of Sikkim for the year ended on 31 March, 2010 shows lot of discrepancies in accounts. Funds pumped in by the Government of India directly to the state implementing agencies are not being monitored at all. In report it is mentioned that “There is no single agency monitoring its use and there is no readily available data on how much is actually spent in major flagship and other important schemes”. Funds coming from the Central Government largely held unaccounted which provide enough space for mismanagement of it. Moreover no one can hold responsible as no system is in place to audit it. Taking a note on State regulatory bodies, Government has not constituted State Electricity Regulatory Commission till now. State Level Education Regulatory Commission is yet to see light even after the announcement from the Chief Minister in the year 2007-08. CAG reports bashed State Government on Public Private Partnership (PPP). Reports say that there is no policy framed by government on PPP. Yet it opened the doors for the private developers. The major thrust in PPP was laid on Hydro Power projects. These projects were awarded to private players without any effective modality and finalising any plan or policy. Report also commented that projects were given at throwaway charges even lowered than any other Hydro Power state in the country. The major embracement for the government on this front is that, CAG specifically mentioned that environmental issues were also neglected and delayed. In the public distribution system government performance was not up to the mark. Tough PDS department in state did a commendable job in catering to 70,851 below poverty line beneficiaries and 4,30,547 above poverty line as of March, 2010. But department neither reviewed nor updated its list of BPL categories despite repeated reminders from the Central Government. Almost forty six thousand BPL beneficiaries possessed both APL and BPL cards which is against the norms. The role of State Government in building Roads and Bridges were appreciated in the report. But report also criticized Government for not formulating any policy on Roads and giving away contracts to private companies without any policies which led to loss of Rs. 5.49 cr to the state. The Report came out with an interesting fact that despite registration of a large number of contractors under the department, one contractor for every 26 citizens making it the highest in the country and probably in the world, the level of competition in the bidding process was very poor indicating cartelization by contractors. It also pointed that lots of projects were sanctioned without availability of funds and thus leading to a liability of Rs. 341.77 crore on department. Report revealed many points indicating mismanagement, overpayment, loss to exchequer and unplanned execution of projects. These points are really a matter of concern. Many corrective measures were suggested to the government in the CAG’s last report for the financial year 2008-09. Same are being made this year too. But it seems that there is not much of enthusiasm in implementing those corrective measures. The irony of the State is that due to lack of opposition party, Public Accounts Committee is headed by the ruling party only. It is contrary to norms as PAC chairman generally comes for the opposition party. The seriousness of these reports can be felt from the fact that CAG report for the financial year 2008-09 is still pending with PAC and this year’s report will be taken once PAC get over with the pending one. When that time will come is something which only time will tell.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 02:40:34 +0000