Team Herald
MARGAO: The Loutolim gram Sabha, on Sunday, approved the audit report of the accounts of the panchayat for 2017-18 without much discussion despite the auditors raising some questions on the panchayat functioning besides also making a mistake.
The audit report stated that the village had only one sarpanch namely Inacinho Fernandes, when in reality he became the sarpanch only in June 2017 after the panchayat elections as earlier Maria Rodrigues was the sarpanch.
The auditors pointed out that grants amounting to Rs 33.57 lakh have remained unspent beyond one year and advised that they be either surrendered to the sanctioning authority or permission be obtained to utilise them from the concerned authority.
Incidentally, the panchayat has received Rs 2.20 lakh under the XII Finance Commission and Rs 3.87 lakh under the XIII Finance Commission which has remained unutilised besides Rs 1.66 lakh grants for managing garbage.
The auditors pointed out that the budget prepared was fictitious and unrealistic as there were huge variations in the budget estimates. The variation between the income estimates and actual ones was Rs 8.93 crore while the variation in expenditure was Rs 1.26 crore.
The auditors, while noting that the tax collection has improved in the year under audit as compared to the previous year, said only 47.89 per cent of the taxes were collected by the panchayat.
The auditors pointed out that the panchayat has failed to collect rent amounting to Rs 1.73 lakh from the 21 shops it has leased out of which seven shop owners have not paid rent since 2012-13.
The panchayat has altogether 95 cases of illegal constructions of which 12 cases were detected during 2017-18. The panchayat has 90 cases pending in different courts. They also noted that the panchayat secretary has not furnished the surety bond.
Incidentally, the panchayat did not undertake any work during 2017-18 nor did the BDO carry out any inspection of the panchayat though the BDO is supposed to conduct 3 inspections. The Extension Officer has inspected the panchayat twice even though there are supposed to be five inspections every year.
