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| CAG points out serious irregularities, breach of mandatory guidelines | | District authorities bypassing MPs: Report | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Apr 12: Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has pointed out serious irregularities and breach of mandatory guidelines in the utilization of Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme funds in Jammu and Kashmir by both district authorities and the implementing agencies.
CAG has taken into account the period from 2004-05 to 2008-09 and studied accounts of then Member Parliaments both of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha from Jammu and Kashmir. Pointing towards a major discrepancy, CAG has said that utilization certificates of 961 works completed at the cost of Rs. 2.40 crore under the scheme had not been submitted.
558 works of Rs. 4.48 crore had been sanctioned during these four years by the district authorities without formal recommendation of the concerned Member Parliaments. CAG has also pointed out cases of work having been sanctioned by the district authority i.e. Deputy Commissioner concerned over and above the amount sanctioned by the Member Parliament (MP).
In contravention to the guidelines for spending MPLAD funds, Parliamentarians from Jammu and Kashmir spent Rs. 60 lakh on 18 renovation, repair and maintenance works. Of 9236 works sanctioned during the year 2004-05, audit has revealed that 2062 works were incomplete when the audit was conducted i.e. in September 2010.
In Anantnag district, the concerned Member Parliament allowed the district administration to utilize Rs. 3.63 crore on contingencies out of his MPLADS fund. By doing this, the concerned MP breached the scheme guidelines which permitted him to spend just Rs. 1.45 crore on contingencies. The expenditure incurred by the then concerned MLA on contingencies was Rs. 2.18 crore in excess to the amount allowed to be spent for the same.
The then Member Parliaments sanctioned works amounting to Rs. 8.49 crore and had to allocate around Rs. 1.91 crore for the development of SC/ST area of Jammu and Kashmir but the allocation was mere Rs. 65 lakh i.e. Rs. 1.26 crore lesser. Further, scheme envisages that unspent balance left by the predecessor parliamentarian was to be equally distributed among successor MPs.
However, audit has revealed that around Rs. 10.25 crore left by predecessor MPs was not distributed among the successor MPs. District authorities and implementing agencies had not maintained separate bank accounts for each Member Parliament. Infact, their funds had been clubbed with the funds of other Member Parliaments (MPs). Audit has unveiled that funds had been kept in fixed deposits, current accounts, personal ledger accounts and in some cases in government treasury.
This is in contravention to the guidelines, according to which the funds had to be kept in saving bank accounts in a public sector bank. Not only this, district authorities had not reconciled the figures of cash book and bank pass book as prescribed. Chartered accountants had not periodically audited the accounts of various Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha constituencies.
Audit of the accounts of district authority vis-a-vis the utilization of MPLADS scheme funds had never been conducted since the inception of scheme in Poonch. J&K had not even maintained MP-wise cash books and there was also no data on usage of MPLADS funds on the website. Headed by Chief Secretary of the state, monitoring committee envisaged under the scheme did not meet even once after it constitution. District authority had not inspected any work during the audit period. Further, there was no method envisaged for internal audit of the scheme. |
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