BHUBANESWAR: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has disapproved of the pending utilisation certificates (UCs) by various departments.
According to the latest report of the CAG, Rs 20,903.77 crore remained outstanding due to want of UCs from the grantee institutions out of the total amount of Rs 25,701.14 crore drawn.
Panchayati Raj Department topped the list by not submitting UCs amounting to Rs 1,811.39 crore. While the amount was Rs 30.17 crore during 2009-10, the figure increased during the last one year.
Similarly, the Women and Child Development Department has not submitted UCs of Rs 1,445.79 crore from 2009-10 to 2010-11. The Rural Development and Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Development departments have also not furnished UCs of Rs 349.68 crore and Rs 346.7 crore respectively. The Planning and Coordination Department, which is also responsible for budget of the Western Odisha Development Council (WODC), has not submitted UCs amounting to Rs 283.97 crore.
The huge pendency was mainly due to non-adherence to the existing instructions in the Odisha General Finance Rules (OGFR) for monitoring timely receipt of UCs by the departmental heads, the CAG said.
The report said in the absence of the UCs, the two certificates on non-diversion and non-misutilisation, that the authorities spending the Government grant is supposed to furnish, get un-compiled. Thus Government, which is the granter, received no assurance about the correct use of its grant, the CAG observed and added such delays are also prone to fraudulent expenditure/transactions, diversion of funds and creation of fake assets.
The CAG said UCs for funds released under the modernisation of police force scheme was to be submitted indicating the actual expenditure incurred, the unspent balance and interest earned which is with the implementing agencies.
The Home Department reported in May, 2011, to have spent and submitted UCs for Rs 568.81 crore out of Rs 579.49 crore received under the scheme during 2010-11 leaving Rs 10.68 crore unutilised by March 2011.
The CAG, however, found that scheme funds of ` 96.99 crore remained unutilised with the executing agency __ Odisha State Police Housing and Welfare Corporation (OSPHWC). This was due to submission of UC without obtaining expenditure figure from the OSPHWC.
This resulted in submission of inaccurate UC for Rs 86.31 crore. Stating that it was indicative of lack of integrity in financial reporting, the CAG maintained that furnishing UCs with inaccurate certificates should be shunned at all cost.