State government rap for depts. ignoring audits

The State government has pulled up several departments for not responding in time to Central and local audits. As per latest data available, 1,889 of 6,090 paragraphs of strictures passed by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) are pending action by various departments for several years. Worse, successive Public Accounts Committees (PACs) couldn’t elicit responses from these departments on close to 244 of the 305 recommendations made since 1986.

Periodical inspections of government departments are conducted to test-check their transactions and verify the maintenance of important accounting and other records, as per rules and procedures. These are followed up with Inspection Reports (IRs), which are issued to department heads, with a copy marked to the next in command. Officials said a half-yearly report is also forwarded to department secretaries for monitoring progress. A senior finance department official said, “We’re fed up and have asked the departments to immediately clear their backlog. Action will be taken against department heads found sitting on audit notes and explanatory responses.”

The Animal Husbandry Department accounts for most of the pending IRs, and is yet to respond to 502 reports. The Public Works and Water Resources departments have 482 and 403 IRs pending against their names, respectively.

Senior officials said the PACs have found it difficult to elicit a response from State government departments, which are bound by the rules to submit Action Taken Notes (ATNs) on audit recommendations.

Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) MLA Jayant Patil, who is a PAC member, said, “These recommendations have been pending with the departments for years. In the recent PAC, we’ve tried to clear most of the backlog. I must congratulate PAC head Gopaldas Agarwal for this.”