CAG: No record available for Rs 44,000 cr spending by ministries

A whopping amount of Rs 44,000 crores, in the recent times, has been issued by the ministers – health, agriculture and human resource- without even asking for its suitable utilization. The funds, as reported by Economic Times, have been issued without receiving any utilization certificates or accounts of grants given to statutory bodies and organizations.

The practice, which resulted in spending without any evidence of gains flowing to the beneficiaries, came into light after a Computer and Auditor General (CAG) report. The report pointed to over 43,000 utilization certificates adding up to Rs 44,000 crore which were due for March 2013 and are still pending even after more than a year.

The CAG report also mentioned that details of other ministries – power, panchayati raj, rural development, petroleum, public enterprises and commerce and industry are yet to be received. The numbers, surely, would go higher after receiving the details of other 13 ministries.

Among the pending utilization certificates, some are due dating back to almost four decades back. For instance, the department of higher education is still awaiting proof of spending related to a grant given as far back as 1977-78, while the space department goes further back to 1976-77.

Similarly, even five years after the Commonwealth Games, which was marred by spending-related controversies, 141 utilization certificates involving expenditure of over Rs 1,000 crore are still pending.

Absence of utilization certificates has been a major concern among the government offices for quite a long time now but it is only during years of fiscal strain that the expenditure department in the finance ministry exercises strict control on release of funds. And, even in those years, the controls typically kick in during the last quarter of the financial year, by which time a large part of the funds are already released.

Several ministries led by health and HRD have protested the government's decision to decentralize spending and do away with a majority of centrally-sponsored schemes, leaving it to states to decide based on their development needs. The argument has been that priority areas would be ignored by states and crucial human development parameters would suffer. The CAG findings, however, point to a completely careless approach where funds were repeatedly released without any evidence of spending having taken place.
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