Leh: After Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has flagged the issue of non-submission of accounts for the audit, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Kargil submitted accounts while LAHDC Leh is still preparing the accounts of remaining financial years and will submit it shortly.
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.
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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.
“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,” reads the latest report of CAG
“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 report read.
Keeping in view the constant reluctance of both the Hill Councils in submission of accounts for audit, Additional Secretary/Finance Advisor, Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the month of November last year convened a meeting to review the preparation of the accounts of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDCs) of both Leh and Kargil pending for the last 25 years in the presence of Advisor Ladakh, Umang Narula at the Union Territory Secretariat.
In the meeting, the Additional Secretary observed, “delay/arrears in finalization of accounts carries the risk of financial irregularities going undetected and entails possibility of fraud and mis-appropriation, along with absence of a feedback on their activities and financial performance”.
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As the Chief Controllers of Finance (CCF) of LAHDCs of Leh and Kargil presented a detailed report on the progress of their work in preparing the pending accounts and even informed about the various shortcomings and issues faced in this process, the Union Additional Secretary directed that accounts should be sent to the office of the Jammu and Kashmir Accountant General on the concurred deadlines starting from November 2021.
However, only the LAHDC Kargil has met the deadlines and submitted all the pending accounts to the Accountant General J&K for audit.
“We have ensured compliance of the directives of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Moreover, a mechanism has been evolved for weekly monitoring of the preparation of accounts”, said Santosh Sukhadeve, Deputy Commissioner Kargil and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LAHDC Kargil when contacted.
On the other side, the LAHDC Leh has yet not ensured full compliance of the directives of the Ministry of Home Affairs and this can be gauged from the fact that accounts of only six financial years have been submitted till now.
“We are in the process of preparing the accounts of remaining financial years and hopefully the same will be submitted to the Accountant General J&K shortly”, said Shrikant Balasaheb Suse, Deputy Commissioner Leh and Chief Executive Officer of LAHDC Leh when contacted.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Deputy Commissioners/Chief Executive Officers of the Hill Councils are supposed to monitor the booking of expenditure under different works on a regular basis to ensure that allotted budgets are timely expended.
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“Now, exact picture about utilization of funds and compliance to the Financial Rules by both the Hill Councils ever since their inception will come to the fore only after the detailed audit of the accounts by the Accountant General”, sources said, adding “the successive Chief Executive Councilors (CECs) of the Hill Councils were responsible for accounts remaining in arrears as they never showed any interest in getting the same audited”.
“Moreover, it is only after the grant of Union Territory status to Ladakh that compliance of the General Financial Rules (GFR) is being ensured in the Hill aCouncils by the administration”, sources further said.
