R Dutta Choudhury
GUWAHATI, Nov 30 – The North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council not only misused huge sums of money allotted under plan and non-plan heads, it also grossly misappropriated funds provided under the special Central assistance for specific schemes for the development of the backward district. These irregularities came out in the special audit of the accounts of the Council carried out by the office of the Accountant General (AG) recently.
The report said that the Government of Assam, Hill Areas Department, accorded sanction for Rs 25 crore as special Central assistance during 2007-08 for implementation of ten plan schemes under PWD (Roads and Bridges) and one scheme under the Social Welfare Department subject to the condition that the Council would have to maintain special accounts and to submit detailed accounts of the monthly expenditures directly to the AG with a copy to the Development Commissioner, Hill Areas. The expenditures were to be made strictly as per the guidelines of the Planning Commission.
The report revealed that the Additional Secretary to the Governor’s secretariat directed the Principal Secretary of the Council that the works worth Rs 20.50 crore under the PWD should be carried out directly under him for timely completion. The Principal Secretary was also asked to constitute a committee for the same but there was no record of constitution of any such committee.
Scrutiny of the records revealed that the Deputy Commissioner of NC Hills, who was also holding the charge of the Principal Secretary to the Council at that time, directed the accountant of the council, in his note sheet, to issue a cheque for Rs 18.50 crore in favour of the Principal Secretary of the Council. The Senior Finance and Account officer pointed out that as per the procedure in force, the cheques should be issued only in favour of the DDOs duly signed by the Principal Secretary. However, on 17.10.07, the cheque was issued in the name of the Principal Secretary and was drawn on 27.10.07. During the audit, the Council failed to provide any record like utilization vouchers, physical and financial progress reports, date of commencement of works, etc., as those were not available with the Council, the audit report said. It is also not known whether any separate bank account was opened for the implementation of the scheme as per the guidelines.
On the other hand, on the basis of the information furnished by the Haflong and Mahur divisions of the PWD, they received Rs 8.01 crore and Rs 6.61 crore respectively during March 2008 to March 2009 but details of the utilization were not available. Major portion of the funds were utilized for clearing the old liabilities without obtaining any permission from the Hill Areas Department and the details of the old liabilities were not available.
During the period from 2007-08 to June 12, 2009, the State Government released Rs 75.04 crore to the PWD of the Council and utilization of Rs 31.90 crore of the same could not be verified due to non-production of the relevant records. The Council claimed that the records were seized by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
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