Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Government not responding to audit: CAG report

Thiruvananthapuram: The Comptroller and Auditor General has drawn attention to the lack of responsiveness of the government to audit.

In the latest report, the CAG points out that the Principal Accountant General (Audit) conducted periodic inspection of the government departments to check transactions and verify maintenance of important accounting and other records. These inspections were followed up with Inspection Reports (IRs) to the heads of offices inspected with a copy to the next higher authorities.

The provisions of Article 63 (c) of the Kerala Financial Code and the instructions issued by the government provided for prompt response by the Executive to the IRs. The heads of offices and the next higher authorities were required to report their compliance to the AG within four weeks of the receipt of the IRs. A half-yearly report was sent to the Secretary of the concerned department to facilitate monitoring of the pending IRs.

The report stated that at the end of June 2007, 6465 IRs and 22,641 paragraphs issued up to December 2006 were outstanding for settlement.

A review of the outstanding IRs pertaining to the Rural Development and the Animal Husbandry Departments revealed that 740 paragraphs contained in 275 IRs, having money value of Rs.99.57 crore, remained unsettled.

The government has to finalise remedial action on all audit paragraphs within two months of the presentation of the reports of the CAG of India to the Legislature. The administrative departments were required to furnish notes explaining the remedial action taken (ATNs) on the audit paragraphs to the Public Accounts Committee or the Committee on Public Undertakings as well as the Principal Accountant General within the prescribed time limit.

During the 2000-01 to 2005-06 period, there were 245 paragraphs on which remedial action had to be finalised. The government furnished the ATNs only on 182 of them.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Seminar on ethno musicology
‘Selfless service vital’
‘Civil rights movements inspired by Gandhi’
The ethics of environmental sustainability
Community policing from tomorrow
Order flayed
Applications invited
Government not responding to audit: CAG report
‘Address issues in farm sector’
IMA’s anti-vector road show concludes
Rescued boys to be sent home
Pushing for progress via watersheds
War of words precedes Corporation budget
Protective steps on at Aruvikkara
Transformer gutted
Ganja seized
Thiruvananthapuram Today

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu