Goa departments unresponsive to our audit observations: CAG

PANAJI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its audit report for the year ending March 31, 2020, decried the lack of responsiveness of the state government to audit observations. As of June 2020, 50 departments have failed to provide a response or comply with or respond to 644 reports with 2,635 paragraphs detailing discrepancies in accounting records, its report shows.
The departments for urban development, PWD, panchayati raj, health, education, agriculture and irrigation are the most unresponsive, with inspection reports pending since 2014-15.
“Two draft performance audit reports and five draft paragraphs were forwarded between November 2020 and February 2021 to the secretaries of the departments concerned,” the report said.
“The government’s replies to these draft paragraphs were required to be received within six weeks. However, replies have not been received till September 2021,” accountant general Anitha Balakrishna in the CAG report.
The accountant general (AG) conducts periodic inspections of government departments to check their transactions. The AG also verifies the maintenance of important accounting and other records as per prescribed rules and procedures. These are followed up with inspection reports, which are issued to the heads of the offices inspected with copies to the next higher authorities.
The CAG also sends half-yearly reminders of pending inspection reports to the secretaries of the concerned departments. “This facilitates monitoring of the action taken on the audit observations included in these inspection reports. As of June 2020, 644 IRs (2,635 paragraphs) were outstanding for want of compliance in the social and general sector wings,” said the CAG report.
According to the internal working rules of the public accounts committee (PAC) of the Goa legislative assembly, the departments need to furnish explanatory memoranda (EM) to the AG for vetting. This has to then be furnished to the legislature within three months from the date of tabling of audit report. Five departments have not submitted the explanatory memoranda pertaining to audit reports for the years 2015-16 to 2018-19.