PANJIM: In a surprising revelation by the CAG, the State’s financial head under Budget is one amongst the 17 departments that failed to reconcile their accounts to the tune of a whopping Rs 3,710.67 crore during the financial year 2016-17.
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has said that the Undersecretary Finance (Budget), did not undertake reconciliation of the account amounting to Rs 153.58 crore.
“Even though, non-reconciliation of departmental expenditure was pointed out regularly in audit reports, lapses on the part of controlling officers in this regard continued to persist during 2016-17,” the CAG said in its report, which was placed during the recently concluded session of the Assembly.
Public Works Department, with un-reconciled expenditure of Rs 1,108.62 crore tops the chart, followed by Directorate of Education having a non-reconciled account of Rs 1,034.02 crore. The other major departments are Women and Child (376.14 crore), Social Welfare (277.02 crore), Panchayat (147.80 crore), Transport (99.96 crore), Health Services (Rs 91.73 crore) and Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services (Rs 83.11 crore).
CAG said the department officers are required to reconcile accounts periodically and before the close of the accounts of a year, the departmental figures of expenditure with those recorded in the books of the Directorate of Accounts. “This enables the Controlling Officers of departments to exercise effective control over their accounts,” the report stated.
The Public Advisory Committee (PAC) in its 48th report in 1992, had desired that punitive action be taken against erring Budget Controlling Authorities (BCAs).
The other departments include, Agriculture (Rs 61.42 crore), Goa Dental College and Hospital (Rs 53.90 crore), Forest (Rs 51.26 crore), Mines and Geology (Rs 49.13 crore), Science, Technology and Environment (Rs 40.49 crore), Labour and Employment (Rs 34.47 crore), Prisons (Rs 24.77 crore) and Information and Publicity (Rs 23.25 crore).
Further, there are another 93 departments, corporations and autonomous bodies that received grants from the State government, but failed to submit their audit account amounting to Rs 118 crore to the Directorate of Accounts.
