Auditors pick holes in VMC books

The audit department of civic body of Vadodara has raised several question marks about the financial system and the records maintained by the various departments.

According to the audit report submitted by Viral Rajyaguru, in charge for audit department, various municipal departments, collectively, have made overpayments to the tune of Rs 50 lakh in last three years.

The audit has been conducted for the financial years 2000-01, 2001-02 and 2002-03.

The deputy municipal commissioner M J Thakkar said: "We have received the detailed audit report from the team, which has shown several flaws in the accounts carried in last three financial years."

However, the amount of overpayments has come down over the period of last three years. The civic body made over payments of Rs 27,48,145 in the financial year 2000-01, which was reduced to Rs 16,46,044 and Rs 7,19,688 in years 2001-02 and 2002-03, respectively.

Auditors expressed surprise at the fact that such negligence took place despite the practice of pre-auditing.

In pre-auditing, audit is conducted before any bill is paid. The audit report claims that there has been no action taken by the concern departmental heads in spite of drawing their attention towards the unprofessional financial management.

The audit department has also pointed that the accounts of about Rs 1 crore has not been maintained properly over last ten years period on account of error and omissions in the account books.

It is difficult now to ascertain the transactions carried by various departments as account books are not clear. The departments have not done timely reconciliation of the bank passbooks and other documents, the report says.

The departments collecting various types of taxes do not have the proper records of the bounced cheques, which can be of help in recovering the outstanding amounts. The audit department has also recommended certain procedures to follow so as to avoid such incidents in future.

"The comprehensive report submitted by the audit team is under observation. At present, it is very early to say the future course of action. But it is sure that strict disciplinary actions will be taken against the wrongdoers," said Thakkar.