BHUBANESWAR:THE Comptroller and Auditor General has pulled up the State Government for under utilisation of funds meant for cyclone preparedness and recovery from disaster.The Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA), the State agency implementing National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) and Odisha Disaster Recovery Project (ODRP), has not been able to derive desired result despite expenditure of Rs 1432.76 crore.
Performance audit of two projects revealed that OSDMA had utilised Rs 877 crore out of an allocation of Rs 1093.79 crore as on March 2017 even as the project period was to end by October 2017.After cyclone Phailin, the State Government implemented ODRP in February 2014 to restore damaged houses and improve capacity of the affected people in three coastal districts. The project components include construction of cyclone resilient house at Rs 1034.25 crore, development of urban infrastructure in Berhampur at Rs 200.91 crore capacity building at Rs 49.46 crore and implementation support of Rs 67.38 crore.
The State Government entered into an agreement with the International Development Agency for a loan of Rs 945.85 crore. The scheduled date of completion of the project is March 2019. The State had utilised Rs 555.69 crore (41 per cent of the outlay) by March last year and had reimbursed Rs 3338.76 crore, said the audit report on General and Social sector which was tabled in the Assembly on Thursday.
Even as the State Government had planned construction of 30,000 houses, OSDMA identified beneficiaries for 16,567 houses.District project implementing unit, Khurda could identify only 281 against eligible beneficiaries of 882 as on March 2017 even though many families are living in thatched houses, the report said.
Under NCRMP, 56 Multi Purpose Cyclone Shelters (MPCSs) were constructed in excess violating the recommendation of IIT, Kharagpur. This resulted in extra expenditure of Rs 77.84 crore. The Multi Purpose Cyclone Shelters were not provided with essential equipment and electricity, it said.The Early Warning Dissemination System could not be made operational even after six years of commencement of the project.
For construction of saline embankments, soil was transported from burrow pits situated within 500 metres of the embankments. However, the contractors were paid considering distance of transportation as five km, resulting in excess payment of Rs 7.37 crore.
The State-level Project Steering Committee, headed by the Chief Secretary, had not conducted any meeting after November 2013. Project implementation was slow due to lack of monitoring at the apex level, the report said.
