The Centre has sought a report from the Andhra Pradesh Government on Rs 960 crore received as loans from foreign agencies for various Externally- Aided Projects (EAPs) remaining unutilised.
The departments that are supposed to get these funds for executing the projects have drawn a blank, while payments running into hundreds of crores of Rupees are yet to be made to contractors on works done so far.
The EAPs now remain derailed because the state is unable to draw further loan amounts from the external agencies due to poor progress of the works and non-clearance of payment (dues).
The Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) under the Union Finance Ministry has taken a strong view and written a letter last week seekingan explanation from the state Finance Department on the issue.
"The overall position of utilisation of advances extended by various authorities is not so encouraging as a very heavy amount of advance is lying in the accounts of Government of Andhra Pradesh.
As on September 7, the amount released as advance is USD 124.65 million, roughly equivalent to Rs 960 crore,” the DEA pointed out in its letter to the Principal Finance Secretary.
The DEA also noted that utilisation of the loan amount "is not so high", which indicated a "situation wherein the interest cost is increasing but the project execution is at a slow pace".
Also, officials of the DEA personally called up top officials of different state departments and "gave us an earful" over the sorry state of affairs, a senior bureaucrat said.
"We are being bombarded with queries on the status of works and utilisation of funds (advanced by foreign agencies), but our report card is filled with only blanks. They gave us money but we can't tell them we actually don't have it,” the bureaucrat observed.
On the one hand, the state government has been scampering for loans but, on the other, the loans secured were obviously not being spent for the intended purpose, he told PTI.
Efforts to contact the Principal Finance Secretary for clarification on the subject did not bear fruit. There are 14 EAPs in execution in AP now, with loans from foreign lenders like World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, International Fund for Agriculture Development, Asian Development Bank, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Japan International Cooperation Agency, New Development Bank and KfW of Germany.