While the State Government has been raising the anti-Centre bogey, the implementation of programmes funded by the Centre remained ineffective and marred by fraudulent payment and fictitious submission of utilisation certificates (UCs).
The submission of fictitious and inflated UCs by the State Government has increased the risk of embezzlement of funds, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India said in its audit report on the flagship scheme of the Centre Indira Awas Yojana (IAY).
The CAG in its recent made caustic observation that submission of fictitious UCs without incurring actual expenditure in the implementation of the IAY had become a practice that encouraged officers of lower formations to follow.
Instances are galore about non-submission of UCs, submission of UCs by the District Rural Development Agency (DRDAs) without incurring expenditure, diversion of funds, incorrect reporting of facts and delay by the State Government in release of funds for the IAY between 2007 and 2012, remarked the CAG.
Indicting the State Government for large scale irregularities, the CAG said that the DRDAs at the time of placing proposal for release of funds to the Centre were required to submit the audit report of previous year prepared by Chartered Accountants along with block-wise expenditure statements based on UCs, certificate regarding non-diversion, non-embezzlement of funds and information that opening balance during the current year was not in excess of 10 per cent of the available funds of the previous year etc. However, scrutiny of records revealed instances of DRDAs reporting incorrect information on matters relating to UCs, diversion and misutilistion of funds etc, it said.
As per the provisions, the implementing authority is to utilise the funds effectively and submit the UCs in support of expenditure countersigned by the disbursing authorities so as to reach the administrative department by June 1 of succeeding year. However, the audit report found that in 26 checked Panchayat
Samitis, UCs for Rs 173 .23 core was submitted against total receipt of grants for Rs 423.41 crore during 2007-12 resulting in UCs for Rs 250.18 crore pending for submission as of March, 2012.
Pointing finger at the lack of efficient financial management in the IAY, the CAG said due to non-submission of UCs by BDOs in time, the DRDAs were not aware of actual position of utilisation of grants at Panchayat Samiti level. This weakened the monitoring capacaity of the DRDAs over the Panchayat Samitis, it said.