BHUBANESWAR : The Governor’s secretariat has pointed out to the Odisha government, through a recent communication, that several corporations and autonomous bodies deal with huge finances without being subjected to statutory financial scrutiny.
Since in certain cases, the relevant Acts need amendment, the accountant general (audit-II) had flagged the issues and drawn the attention of Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati about the statutory corporations/bodies not coming under the ambit of financial/accounts audit during a meeting last month.
The Governor’s secretariat has requested the chief secretary to take immediate steps to amend the relevant Acts and provide explicit provisions for financial audits by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.
The Odisha Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) and Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) are two such autonomous bodies that handle financial transactions running into hundreds of crores rupees every year, yet remain outside the purview of financial audits by the CAG.
Official documents accessed by The New Indian Express revealed that neither the amended Idco Act nor the OUAT Act has provisions empowering the CAG to conduct statutory financial audits.
While compliance audits (to ensure that rules, regulations and laws are being followed) of the two are being conducted, such scrutiny is limited only to the quantum of government grants and loans they receive, leaving large parts of their financial operations unaudited.
Not only these two, several autonomous bodies, including the universities are out of the financial audits by the CAG. No financial audit has been carried out in Odisha State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (OSCAMPA) for the past 13 years. Sources said the last audit was conducted for the year ending March 31, 2011. Since then, the authority that handles hundreds of crores of rupees meant for forest conservation and compensatory afforestation, has accumulated arrear accounts, raising questions about transparency and accountability in its utilisation.
“The Idco Act, 1980 amended in 1994 does not contain provisions for financial audits by CAG or statutory auditors appointed by CAG followed by supplementary audits. As per section 32 (2) of the OUAT Act, the accounts of the university and its fund shall be subject to audit under Odisha Local Fund Audit Act, 1948. But there is no provision in the Act for financial audit by CAG,” sources said.
The Idoc received Rs 1,957.77 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 1,935.59 crore in 2022-23 while the total receipts of OUAT in last three fiscals included Rs 758.28 crore in 2022-23, Rs 707.52 crore in 2023-24 and Rs 767.69 crore in 2024-25.