The Autonomous Hill Development Councils of Leh and Kargil have not submitted their annual accounts for mandatory audit in over two decades, the Comptroller and Auditor General has noted with serious concern.
The LAHDC- Leh and LAHDC-Kargil are among 56 autonomous bodies set up erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir required to be audited under Section 14 of the CAG’s (DPC) Act of 1974. “Their accounts were awaited for audit”, the CAG has said.
The certification audit of accounts of Autonomous Bodies set up by the State Government is conducted under Section 19(3) and 20(1) of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (DPC) Act 1971. These bodies are required to submit the annual accounts to audit before June 30 every year. However, in respect of 10 Autonomous Bodies which were to render annual accounts to CAG, 84 accounts were not rendered for the period ranging between one to 24 years.
These 10 Autonomous Bodies are Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh; Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council Kargil; Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology-Srinagar and Jammu; Employees Provident Fund Board, Srinagar; Jammu and Kashmir Housing Board; Khadi Village and Industries Board; Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board and State Legal Services Authority.
The LAHDC, Leh has failed to submit accounts for audit since its inception—1995-96, although substantial sums are being released to the Council and unspent balances at the end of the year remain credited in a non-lapsable fund, the CAG said, adding “same is the position in respect of LAHDC, Kargil which came into existence in the year 2004-05 and the accounts are in arrears since inception”.
“Non-submission/delay in submission of accounts by these Bodies receiving substantial funding from the Budget is a serious financial irregularity persisting for years”, the CAG said, adding “in view of this non-compliance, the audited accounts of these Statutory Bodies have not so far been presented to the State Legislature, as required under the Statutes under which these Bodies were created”.
The delay/arrears in finalization of accounts carries the risk of financial irregularities going undetected and entails possibility of fraud and misappropriation, the audit institution said and stressed that the Government should take up the matter with these Bodies for timely preparation and submission of accounts.
