Shillong, Sep 19: The State Finances Audit Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has stated that as on March 31, 2020 a total of 838 utilisation certificates (UCs) amounting to Rs. 3, 843.37 crore remained outstanding in the books of the Accountant General (A&E).
The CAG report stated that the major defaulting departments who have not submitted the UCs and their percentage against outstanding amount under Grants-in-Aid were Education department (Rs. 2256.21 crore), Secretariat Economic Service department (Rs.730.75 crore), other Rural Development Programmes department (Rs. 507.06), Health and Family Welfare department (Rs. 422.97 crore), Welfare of Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes, Other Backward Classes (Rs. 301.49 crore), Special Programme for Rural Development department (Rs.241.71 crore), Rural Employment department (Rs.229.54 crore), Power department (Rs. 127.39 crore), Social Security and Welfare department (Rs. 93.76 crore) and Arts and Culture department (Rs.72.86 crore).
The CAG Report stated that in the absence of UCs, it could not be ascertained whether the recipients had utilised the grants for the purposes for which they were disbursed.
“Further, it is likely that the funds received were not spent and were being held in the bank accounts of the respective departments,” the Report said.
The CAG observed that the Education department had a savings of Rs. 565.55 crore during 2019-20 out of which Rs. 369.66 crore received was on account of grants-in-aid for Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS).
The CAG stated that in the absence of UCs being submitted by the department it is impossible to gauge the implementation status of the scheme for which funds have been received.
The report stated that since huge pendency in submission of the UCs is fraught with the risk of fraud and misappropriation of funds, it is imperative that the State government should monitor this aspect closely and not only hold the concerned persons accountable for submission of UCs in a timely manner but review disbursement of further grants to defaulting departments.