PAC sees lapses in accounting of expenses of rail projects over yrs

Finding that Rs 5,001.87 crore incurred on 615 projects ranging from one year to more than 20 years remained unsanctioned as of March 2013, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in its report on the "Accounting of Projects in Indian Railways" said that this raised "serious doubts" about the possibility of adding on expenditure even after completion of actual work as the books were kept open for such a long time. The report was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

"What is still more disturbing is the fact that these unsanctioned expenditure remained un-regularised for two decades depicts the slackness on the part of the concerned Executive departments for not following these cases and getting them regularised for such a long period. The Committee would like to know as to whether any responsibility has been fixed against the concerned officers for showing laxity in such cases," the PAC said.

It further stated that the engineering code stipulates that completion reports have to be prepared in order to compare the cost of work actually incurred with that provided in the sanctioned estimate.

"The Committee is shocked to observe that there is no explanation by the Ministry as to why Completion Reports of 78 projects commissioned 24  years ago were not prepared.

"If the test checked cases in the Audit Report reveals non-preparation of completion reports of 78 projects commissioned even 24 years ago the Committee can very well visualise that what would be the quantum of non-completion of reports at present in the entire Railway Zones," the committee said in its report.

The committee recommended that after taking stock of the total non-completion reports, the chief accounting authority in the Railway Board as well as the concerned accounting authorities in all the Railway Zones should be "held responsible for this lapse and suitable punishment awarded to them".

"A robust internal control system to assess and verify the cost of completed projects in the books of accounts should be evolved by the Ministry. The Committee would also like to be apprised of the present position of 50 per cent outstanding reports which were to be completed by December 31, 2017," it said.