Despite their failure to furnish accounts, Govt invested Rs 790 crore in 16 PSUs

*CAG’s communiqué on clearance of backlog ignored by CS
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 3: Leaving enough scope for misappropriation and embezzlement, the Government’s investment worth several hundred crores of rupees in Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) has remained outside the scrutiny of Audit and State Legislature mainly because of willful ignorance of the observations of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India by the concerned departments and the Chief Secretary.
As per the provisions of Companies Act, 1956, the accounts of the companies for every financial year are required to be finalized within six months from the end of the relevant financial year. Similarly, in case of statutory corporations, their accounts are finalized, audited and presented to the Legislature as per the provisions of their respective Acts.
However, 12 working Public Sector Undertakings of the State failed to forward even one account during the financial year 2013-14 causing accumulation of the arrears ranging between four and 19 years.
Moreover, the State Government invested Rs 790.63 crore (Rs 64.57 crore equity, Rs 354.03 crore loans, Rs 359.44 crore grants and Rs 12.59 crore subsidy) in 16 PSUs during the years for which accounts have not been finalized.
These PSUs are State Agro Industries Development Corporation Limited; State Horticulture Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation Limited; State Handloom Development Corporation Ltd; Handicrafts Development Corporation Limited; J&K Industries Limited; J&K Small Scale Industries Development Corporation Limited; State Industrial Development Corporation Limited; J&K Minerals Limited; J&K Cements Limited; J&K State Power Development Corporation Limited; State Tourism Development Corporation Limited; State Cable Car Corporation Limited; J&K Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes Development Corporation Limited; J&K State Women Development Corporation; J&K SRTC and J&K State Financial Corporation Limited.
“In the absence of accounts and their subsequent audit, it could not be ensured whether the investments and expenditure incurred had been properly accounted for and the purpose for which the amount was invested had been achieved or not”, the CAG said in its latest report, adding “due to this, the Government’s investment in these PSUs remained outside the scrutiny of the State Legislature”.
The administrative departments have the responsibility to oversee the activities of these entities and to ensure that the accounts are finalized and adopted by these PSUs within the prescribed period. “Though the concerned administrative departments were informed of the arrears in finalization of accounts, no remedial measures were taken”, the CAG has pointed out, adding “as a result of this, the net worth of these PSUs could not be assessed in audit”.
Moreover, the matter of arrears in accounts was also taken up with the Chief Secretary in August 2014 to expedite the backlog of arrears in accounts in a time bound manner but no positive development took place, which clearly indicates that communiqué of the CAG was willfully ignored.
As per the standing instructions, the administration should ensure proper utilization of available State land and their preferential utilization for public purposes. However, test check of land acquisition records in the districts of Budgam, Jammu, Kathua and Udhampur showed that the District Collectors had acquired 101 kanals and 10 marlas of private land costing Rs 2.95 crore in different tehsil headquarters despite the fact that sufficient quantum of vacant State land was available within short distance of the site of proprietary lands acquired.
“This was despite the fact that such acquisitions had been made for non-location specific purposes—construction of school/college, PHE store/tank, medical centre, waste disposal, filtration plant etc”, the CAG said, adding “neither the land acquisition awards contained details of specific requirement put forth by the indenting departments nor the indents placed were produced to Audit”.
When enquired by CAG, the Commissioner Secretary Revenue stated that Collector has no role in land identification as same is done by the indenting department and that substantial Government land had been transferred for the public purposes.
Had the State land would have been utilized, the time consumed in acquisition of private land could have been saved for speedy implementation of the projects.

Follow our WhatsApp channel