Par panel raps MOSPI for blatant violation of financial rules

Rapping the Statistics and Programme Implementation Ministry (MOSPI) for "blatantly violating" general financial rules, a Parliamentary panel has said some district authorities reported inflated expenditure figures and showed released money as "utilised" under MPLADS.
"The Committee were highly concerned to note that 12 District Authorities (DAs) of six states inflated the figures of expenditure by Rs 35 crore by depicting the entire advance of Rs 100.17 crore released to the implementing authorities as utilised," the report tabled in Parliament said today.
The Public Accounts Committee headed by Congress leader K V Thomas presented its report on 'Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS)' based on Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) report of 2010-11.

"Shockingly, in blatant violation of the General Financial Rules (GFR) 2005, DAs in some states were showing money given as advance as expenditure in the Utilisation Certificate," it said.
The DAs had also reported lesser amount of interest earned in their annual accounts and/ Monthly Progress Reports (MPRs) than those reported in the MPRs of the earlier months resulting in an understatement of interest of Rs 5.60 crore in respect of 21 constituencies, said the report.
The PAC report said the Ministry failed to examine or get clarifications from the DAs on the financial irregularities, despite of the fact that it holds the DAs and the implementing agencies (IAs) responsible for properly maintaining the accounts of MPLADS funds.

"The Committee deplored the sorry state of affairs leading to blatant violation of the provisions of the guidelines and the resultant siphoning away of public funds," the report said.

The Committee also found that over 48 per cent work in 2004-05 to 59 per cent in 2006-07 were not completed on time, against the stipulated guidelines of not exceeding one year time limit.
"To make the matter worse, the Ministry were not in a position to effectively monitor the incomplete works."
PAC also expressed displeasure over the fact that the Monitoring Committee to oversee the projects, either failed to meet annually or never held any meetings.

The panel also asked the Ministry to expedite the process
of developing and installing software for incorporating district-wise MPLADS accounts and collating annual accounts and balance sheets of all districts.
It asked the Ministry to obtain necessary explanations from the DAs concerned without further loss of time so that requisite preventive and punitive measures were taken to observe strict fiscal discipline.
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI), the PAC said although received replies on doubtful expenditure from Bihar and Jharkhand, the Committee find that the Ministry has not taken any concrete actions to see that responsibility could be fixed on delinquent officials.

Besides, the Committee also noted that Rs 14.40 crore were sanctioned and released for works pertaining to 34 trusts or societies in ten states, which exceeded the ceiling of Rs 25 lakh per trust or society.
The report also pulled up the Finance Ministry for its reported absence during the meetings held in March and April 2012 scheduled to discuss the report of a committee to consider changes with regard to audited accounts under MPLAD.
"In their report, the Committee had noted many systematic weaknesses in implementation of MPLAD scheme as brought out by the CAG."
The PAC also asked the Ministry to provide information about measures taken or proposed against the concerned states in case of non-compliance.