PHE ignores CAG Report

A new trend has developed in the administration whereby minimal importance is given to the reports of the country’s highest and most prestigious auditing institution called CAG.  Of late we have been bringing to public domain various such reports of the CAG as have never been taken seriously for discussion and implementation. This is a deplorable trend and has to be discouraged because it put roadblock in the developmental process of the State. There are elements in the administration who fail to understand the real purpose of the institution of CAG.  A wrong impression has been spread with sections of bureaucracy that CAG is a super-institution sitting on judgement and is dictating terms to the departments. They take it something like Ombudsman over bureaucracy. This is a wrong impression and sooner it is effaced from mind the better.
CAG is an integral and unavoidable factor is gauging the progress of developmental projects and their impact on the masses of people. Its important function is to identify the hurdles in the way of implementation of projects which can be technical, financial, administrative or circumstantial. Ordinarily, departments are not able to discover all of these flaws, and as such they cannot find permanent solution to these.  The CAG is departmental friendly if the departments are able to understand its functionality and develop rapport with it in constructive manner.
Normally, the procedure is that the Legislative Assembly constitutes House Committee to ascertain action on CAG’s findings. The Committee on Public Accounts, while examining the audit paragraph of CAG asked the PHE Department to explain a number of questions raised by the CAG in its report. In the first place the Committee on Public Accounts found that the recommendations of the CAG had not been addressed at all and were gathering dust in the PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Department. The conspicuous lacuna detected by the CAG was that schemes are still being taken up by the department without strict adherence to the guidelines and prioritization leading to inordinate delay in their completion. Perspective Plan is of vital importance which is neglected and the Committee on Public Accounts has taken the Government to task on this grave deficiency.
Another matter that has cropped up prominently in the report of the CAG and which the Public Accounts Committee has also viewed with much concern is the dismal performance of the Human Resource Management of PHE. It has come under severe criticism.Although,Human Resources Management branch had finalized seniority lists of SEs, Executive Engineers, AEEs and JEs yet these have not been updated.
The fact of the matter is that everything is not right with the PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Department. Whether it is Perspective Planning or the manpower status or human resource management, there is performance deficit. There is the need of streamlining all the branches of the department. However, it has also to be remembered that the Government must also play its cards safe. If the human resource management branch is desired to digitalize the records and see the management conducted along desired lines, it has to be provided with all the preliminaries and pre-requisites. After all everything is not in its hands and it has to look to the sources wherefrom its requirements will be fulfilled. In final analysis a concerted effort on all concerned has to be made to make things go smoothly in the PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Department and it is of immense importune that the guidelines provided by the CAG are strictly followed.

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