The City Corporation’s inefficiency in project execution, tax and revenue collection, maintenance of records and fund utilisation has been criticised in the latest Local Fund Audit report for the 2011-12 fiscal. A huge gap is identified between the expected income (Rs 459.68 crore) and expenditure (Rs 472.7 crore) figures in the Corporation budget and the actual amount. The report has asked the Corporation to prepare the budget in a realistic manner.
In the 2011-12 financial year, when the Corporation received approval to carry out 1,331 projects utilising the development fund and maintenance fund, only 822 projects could be implemented, utilising just 12.5 per cent of the fund allocation.
According to the audit report, as all projects of the Corporation are carried out towards the financial year end, the project implementation is adversely affected. Project activities have to begin in April itself. Project approval, selection of beneficiaries and implementation have to be done in a time-bound manner, said the report.
The report said that less attention had been paid to the demand raised by the citizens in ward-level committees and, instead, plan fund was utilised more on least productive and result-oriented activities. More projects have to be devised for basic requirements such as construction of houses, sanitation, water supply, electrification and poverty alleviation. It is seen that the projects for the uplift of weaker sections comprising women, children, elderly citizens, physical and mentally challenged and traditional fishermen are neither formulated nor efficiently carried out.
Fund utilised for agricultural sector in the February-March period is not benefiting the sector. No assessment or study is made on the growth or challenges faced by the agricultural sector at the end of every Five-Year Plan.
The report flays the Corporation for not devising and implementing new and productive projects for solid waste management. Pipe-compost and source-level waste management measures are at a standstill. An amount of around Rs six crore allocated for these projects remains in the bank account without utilisation. To replace these failed projects, the Corporation has not come up with new ones.
Though several slum eradication projects based on state and Centrally-sponsored schemes were kicked off several years ago, none has been completed this far. No effort is made to realise the projects conceived for improving the basic facilities of the slums, said the report.