The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has found gaping holes in the financial management of resources under the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) and pointed out that there was no connect between earmarking of funds and benefits flowing to the tribal people.
The CAG noted that the concept of TSP was started by the Government in the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-79) to ensure that the share of resources spent for benefit of Scheduled Tribes (STs) was at least in proportion to their share in the population of the country.
“Financial management under the scheme was deficient as many instances of under-utilisation and diversion of Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) funds were noticed. Besides, some states had not released their proportion of share to implementing agencies,” according to the performance audit report of Tribal Sub-Plan done by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) from 2011-12 to 2013-14.
“Delays in release of funds at various levels from State Government to nodal agency were also observed. Even though funds from Central level were released in trifurcated head but the account of expenditure was not maintained component-wise at each level,” it said.
The Government auditor noted that up to 2010, there was no linkage between earmarking of funds under TSP and benefits flowing to the tribal people.
“Subsequently, efforts were made by Planning Commission to earmark part of funds for TSP in all sectors and schemes. However, the audit found that mechanism in place to ensure proper utilisation of allocated funds is still inadequate,” it said.
The CAG also noted that Ministry of Tribal Affairs had not been invited to contribute to the process of formulation and finalisation of annual plan of Central ministries which was the groundwork required for successful implementation of TSP.
The basic objective of the TSP is to channelise the flow of outlay and benefits from the general sector in Centralised ministries for development of STs both in physical and financial terms.
“Planning for implementation of schemes was deficient which were formulated without specific consideration of tribal beneficiaries as required under TSP. No study was conducted to assess the gap in development of STs as envisaged,” the report said.
The CAG pointed out that the exact expenditure under the scheme remained unascertainable.
“The audit observed that the expenditure budget of 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 exhibited the figures of expenditures incurred under TSP even though these were not available in the utilisation certificates, raising questions about the manner of consolidation of the amounts as well as credibility of such figures,” it added.