In its annual report, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) routinely throws up evidence of financial mismanagement of various government departments, unnecessary financial expenditures, and other fiscal irregularities that would otherwise have probably gone unreported. And in its latest report, there is one particular irregularity that stands out for its sheer audacity and has the shimmer of gold attached to it.
In recent years, Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) has probably bitten more than it can chew. Already at the centre of a controversy for offering to pay the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) proponents their original investment in the land with a huge interest component, it has now come to light that the corporation in 2016 spent almost Rs 20 lakh to gift its employees gold coins, yes gold medallions, on completion of 50 years of its existence. This came to light when the CAG brought it up in the latest report that was tabled in the Assembly on the last day of the monsoon session last week.
Here’s what happened and note that it’s not just the expenditure on the gold coins that the CAG had an issue with. The decision to gift gold coins and the expenditure was taken and approved in August 2016 by the Managing Director of the corporation. The gold medallions were to be mementoes to the staff (regular and on contract) each two grams in weight and worth Rs 7,305 to honour the sincere efforts of the staff commemorating the GIDC golden jubilee year.
The CAG in its report said that the corporation’s MD had no power to authorise such expenditure and that the proposal be placed before the Board for its approval and ratification. The gold coins were, however, procured and distributed, and the proposal placed before the Board on October 17, 2017 long after the medallions were already in possession of the staff and an expenditure of Rs 19.84 lakh was ratified ex-post facto.
The GIDC justification that the Corporation had a net surplus of Rs 56.12 crore up to the year 2014-15 was set aside by the CAG that said this was ‘not convincing’ and the audit observed that the accumulated surplus was not because of the operational efficiency of the GIDC but mainly on account of interest received from banks. CAG went on to state that this gold coin distribution was in ‘violation of the letter and spirit of financial propriety’.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has had its say on the matter. Will the government act on this and seek a justification for the expenses from the GIDC?
There is no plausible explanation for how the Board of Directors of the Goa Industrial Development Corporation authorised such an expenditure on gold coins to staffers ten months after it had been done, with no questions asked. Wasn’t there even one director on the board who questioned this expenditure when the proposal was put before the board for post-facto approval? The Board definitely needs to answer some questions now.
This may be one example and here may be restricted to the procurement of gold coins but it brings into picture the accountability of government staff and political appointees to positions on semi-government organisations. Is there absolutely no accountability in administration? The spending of public money for frivolous items needs to stop. If need be rules have to be amended to make government officials answerable to all decisions taken, especially those concerning money matters.
