The CBI spent about Rs 20 crore, nearly 30 per cent of its total budgetary allocation of Rs 66.77 crore, in the last six weeks of financial year 2016-17, a parliamentary panel has noted while pulling up the agency.
In a report tabled in Parliament today, the department- related parliamentary standing committee on personnel, public grievances and pensions asked the agency to "streamline and scrupulously" monitor the pace of implementation of its schemes and expenditure to ensure their timely completion to avoid the allocation being reduced by the finance ministry.
It noted that Rs 75 crore was allocated to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Budget Estimates of 2016-17 for all six planned schemes of the CBI which was reduced to Rs 73.21 crore at revised estimates (RE) stage and further reduced to Rs 66.77 crore in final grant of 2016-17.
"Further, as per figures provided by the CBI only Rs 46.61 crore (about 63.66 per cent of the funds earmarked under plan scheme at RE stage) was utilised by February 14, 2017 and the rest of the amount was spent only in the last six weeks of the financial year," it said.
The government, in its response, said that 99.49 per cent of the final allocation to the agency had been spent under various schemes.
"The CBI and various executing agencies engaged by it are responsible for meeting expenditure on the projects. To ensure timely implementation of various projects, Project Monitoring Committees have been constituted for various ongoing projects and address issues, if any, in implementation," it said.
The government also said implementation is also monitored in the Department of Personnel and Training on regular basis to help resolve issues, if any.
The committee noted that the allocation for the CBI is reduced at revised estimates stage and the expenditure goes up steeply in the last leg of the financial year.
"However, the reply does not entail any reason for this reduction. The committee wishes to know the reasons and difficulties, if any, being faced by the organisation and how this could be resolved," it said.
The panel said it has noticed that Project Monitoring Committees and further monitoring by the DoPT have not brought desired result.
"The committee wishes that both the DoPT and the CBI ensure that this trend be checked in any case," it said.
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