BENGALURU: In the signal-free corridor project, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) ended up incurring `an avoidable expenditure’ of Rs 99.33 lakh, According to Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India’s report on state finances, general and social sector for the year 2016-17, submitted in legislature on Friday.
CAG blamed BDA of violation of codal provision by awarding the project to the contractor prior to the acquisition of land. According to orders of the arbitrator, appointed under Arbitration and conciliation act, BDA was forced to pay Rs 94.56 lakh and an additional `4.77 lakh towards arbitrator professional charges. Until now we are awaiting a reply from BDA,’’ Principal Accountant General (general and social sector audit) E P Nivedita informed media persons at a conference hall in Audit Bhavan on Friday. BDA Commissioner Rakesh Singh remained incommunicado despite many efforts to reach him.
Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) paid a heavy price for delaying the payment of compensation for land (one acre 20 guntas) acquired at Valagerahalli. The board ended up paying Rs 15.26 crore instead of Rs 1.89 lakh, the price of land 21 years ago. KHB officials in their reply said they had initiated a process of identifying officials responsible for non-payment of compensation. Executive Director of Karnataka Backward classes department buildings construction society had unauthorisedly invested Rs 10.50 crore of society funds in mutual funds.
Highlights
Karnataka is financially well-managed state with debt and fiscal liabilities being within norms as under Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act (KFRA)
Karnataka was one of few states to boast of revenue surplus of Rs 1,293 crore.
Ratio of non-tax revenue to Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in the range 0.49 to 0.52 per cent was lesser than Kerala (1.5 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (0.74 per cent).
State did not receive grants to tune of Rs 20.41 cr as elected bodies were not in place in panchayat raj institutions.
The report reveals that the government had not complied with recommendations of 14th Finance commision by setting up water regulatory authority, or Electricity regulatory commission fund and independent regulator for road transport.
Detailed bills were pending for a long time and huge amount of money was retained in personal deposit accounts.
34 lecturers are unqualified
Under the thematic audit of nine universities (total 17) and 159 government colleges (total 951 colleges) in the state, the report found that 34 lecturers had been appointed despite not possessing qualifications like NET/SLET or doctorate degrees.
Anti-naxal forces ill-equipped
The report also observed that special police forces like coastal police, anti Naxal forces were ill-equipped and untrained. Trainees in three police training institutes were deprived of training in modern weapons due to non-functioning of firearms simulators.
31 police stations do not have a separate room for women officers
The audit of modernisation of police drive (covering 60 out of 247 police stations) revealed that 43 police stations did not have barrack facility. As many as 34 police stations did not have separate toilet facility for men and women visitors. 20 police stations did not have separate lockup facility for men and women.
The report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India observed that the transactions of government account was not transparent and there were instances where expenditure was classified under defunct heads of account. According to CAG’s report on state finances, general and social sector for the year 2016-17, submitted in the legislature on Friday, health and a couple of other departments were classifying expenditure under defunct heads.
In one case, expenditure of Rs 5.57 crore was classified under the revenue section instead of capital section and expenditure of Rs 40.12 crore was classified under capital section instead of revenue section. Principal Accountant General (general and social sector audit) E P Nivedita told media persons at a conference hall in Audit Bhavan on Friday that departments in their reply had promised not to classify expenditure under defunct heads at the `exit conference’ held in 2017.