SOP issued for incurring expenditure out of contingencies
*Audit observations continue to remain unaddressed: FC
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 10: Admitting that vital Regulation of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has not received due attention of several departments and Corporations, the Government has sought Action Taken Report (ATR) from all the Administrative Secretaries within a week’s time. Moreover it has laid stress on extending necessary cooperation to the Principal Accountant General for settlement of audit observations, which otherwise remain unaddressed for considerable period of time.
The EXCELSIOR in its edition dated January 4, 2020 had exclusively reported that several Government departments in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are not paying serious attention towards Regulation 145 of the Regulations on Audit and Accounting 2020 issued by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in pursuance to Section 23 of the GAG’s (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Act, 1971.
It was also highlighted that several concerned officers of the Finance Department were completely unaware of the level of compliance by other departments and corporations although they were supposed to track the same after regular intervals.
Regulation 145 read: “Government shall establish audit committees for the purpose of monitoring and ensuring compliance and settlement of pending audit observations. Each committee so established shall comprise of a representative each from the administrative department, Audit and a nominee from the Finance Department besides the Head of the Department of the auditable entity. The minutes of the meetings of the audit committee shall also be recorded”.
The inaction on Regulation 145 has been admitted by the Financial Commissioner, Finance Department Dr Arun Kumar Mehta in a circular dated January 8, 2020 whereby attention of all the Government departments and corporations has been drawn towards the necessity of establishing audit committees for the purpose of monitoring and ensuring compliance and settlement of pending audit observations.
“It has come to the notice of Finance Department that substantive progress has not been made in the matter and a number of audit observations continue to remain unaddressed”, the Financial Commissioner Finance said, adding “as per Principal Accountant General there is lack of response from the departments on the subject”.
The Financial Commissioner Finance further said, “due to non-cooperation of the departments, achieving of objectives of audit in terms of examining the validity, propriety, economy, efficiency and effectiveness of financial management in the public administration is severely affected”.
He has enjoined upon all the Administrative Secretaries to establish audit committees in the entities (departments/PSUs) falling under their respective control in accordance with Regulation 145 of Regulations on Audit and Accounts 2020. “Action taken may be confirmed within a week’s time”, Dr Mehta has stressed, adding “each committee so established shall comprise of a representative each from the administrative department, Audit and a nominee from the Finance Department besides the Head of the Department of the auditable entry”.
These committees are supposed to look into number and gist of audit observations/paragraphs included in the audit report(s) of the Comptroller and Auditor General for the previous year(s) and suggest measures for rectification of major irregularities intimated by the Accountant General (Audit) during the previous year(s).
Moreover, these committees are required to examine the Action Taken Report submitted by the departments on audit observations/paragraphs and irregularities pointed out by the Accountant General (Audit).
Meanwhile, Finance Department has issued Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for incurring of expenditure out of contingencies provided in the DPRs of the projects.
The SOP has been issued as it has come to the notice of the Finance Department that in the absence of clear cut guidelines for incurring expenditure out of contingencies provided in the administratively approved DPRs of the projects, the executive divisions of various engineering departments are facing lot of difficulties in making the payments for items associated with the implementation of the projects.
“This defeats the very purpose of keeping this provision in the DPRs administratively approved by the competent authority”, the Finance Department said and asked all the Administrative Secretaries of the engineering departments to impart instructions to all the subordinate offices to incur the expenditure out of contingent charges subject to maximum of 3% of the total cost of the project.
As per the SOP, the expenditure on account of laying of foundation stone/inauguration will be subject to maximum of Rs 20,000 in each case as per PMGSY guidelines. The other items covered under 3% ceiling include quality control, miscellaneous expenditure such as GIS tagging, video-graphy, clearance of road blockades of urgent nature and third party inspections.
However, the expenditure will be incurred only after fulfilment of all codal formalities and the contingency charges shall not be used for hiring of casual labourers and the contingent expenditure shall be commensurate with physical progress of each project.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
