HYDERABAD: Referring to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s (CAG) audit report on state finances and other sectors for the fiscal year 2016-17, BJP said it was shocking that the State government had shown the revenue deficit as revenue surplus so as to obtain more loans, “a misadventure which further increased debt burden on each person in the State.”
“This was done to raise more loans, probably to fill the pockets of contractors. The Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao should respond on the strictures passed by the CAG on his government, instead of claiming that all is well in the government. Action should be taken on the officers responsible for fudging the figures in the budget,” ex-Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya said.
Addressing media on Sunday, the BJP veteran said the CAG report had clearly demonstrated the fact that the State government was not maintaining economic discipline in any department. The report had also established the evidence with regard to how Chief Minister KCR was indiscriminately wasting public money as per his whims and fancies, he added.
“The CAG report clearly proved that the government had projected revenue deficit as revenue surplus. In order to show the State as the richest one so as to obtain more loans from financial institutions, the government fudged the figures in the budget. It manipulated the accounts. By doing so, the State government has lost its credibility,” Dattatreya said.
“According to CAG findings, there is a mismatch between the figures shown by the government and actual work done at the filed level,” the BJP leader claimed. Mentioning the Mission Kakatiya works as an example of how the government fudged figures in the budget, the BJP leader said while Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao had been claiming that the State was reaching its target of renovating all the tanks, the CAG had found that only 28 per cent of the target was met.
“The CAG exposed unrealistic targets in the implementation of Mission Kakatiya. As per the CAG report, in all the three phases put together, the irrigation department could complete only 28 per cent of the tanks till March 2017.”
“The report stated that there was no evidence on record to show that the field officers had conducted preliminary investigations to assess the quantum of silt to be removed. That means, the government had helped the contractors in submitting inflated bills,” he alleged.