Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 7: Notwithstanding the tall claims of the Finance Minister, financial indiscipline continued to galore in Jammu and Kashmir with Government departments incurring an expenditure of Rs 1325.73 crore in blatant violation of the Budget Manual. Moreover, unnecessary allotment of additional funds was made in favour of various departments merely on the basis of anticipation of expenditure thereby exposing the inefficient system of fund projection.
As per the Budget Manual, expenditure should not be incurred on a scheme/service without provisions of funds. However, during the financial year 2012-13, expenditure of Rs 1325.73 crore was incurred in 74 Major Heads of Accounts without any provisions in the original estimates/supplementary demand and without any re-appropriation orders to this effect, official documents said.
Social Welfare Department is on top of the list of such departments with Rs 40943.58 lakh expenditure without budget provisions followed by Housing and Urban Development Department with expenditure of Rs 26461.70 lakh beyond budget provisions. Education Department is at number three place with expenditure beyond budget provisions at Rs 14285.49 lakh and Higher Education Department at 4th place with Rs 10748.70 lakh expenditure without budget provisions.
Key departments like General Administration, Home, Planning and Development are also figuring in the list. Home Department incurred Rs 2021.48 lakh expenditure while as Planning and Development Department spent Rs 1413.24 lakh and GAD Rs 538.99 lakh without budget provisions, the document said. Even the Finance Department has violated the Budget Manual by incurring expenditure of Rs 7681.19 lakh without budget provisions.
The other departments, which have also violated the Budget Manual are Power Development (Rs 334.17 lakh), Law Department (Rs 43.24 lakh), Industries and Commerce Department (Rs 883.54 lakh), Agriculture (Rs 5377.19 lakh), Animal Husbandry (Rs 598.25 lakh), Revenue Department (Rs 810.09 crore), Health and Medical Education (Rs 5289.07 lakh), Tourism (Rs 6881.96 lakh), Forest (Rs 916 lakh), Rural Development (Rs 6946.07 lakh). CAPD (Rs 26.12 lakh) and Public Works (Rs 169.21 lakh).
In yet another example of financial indiscipline, unnecessary release of additional funds has come to the fore. In 14 cases, involving 10 grants and two appropriations, supplementary grant of Rs 1555.16 crore was obtained in excess of the original provision in anticipation of expenditure. However, the final expenditure of Rs 2909.42 crore was even less than the original grant of Rs 4843.43 crore. The saving of Rs 3489.17 crore thus exceeded the entire supplementary provision indicating inefficient system of fund projection leading to unnecessary allotment of additional funds.
In eight other cases, supplementary grants aggregating Rs 814.12 crore were obtained against the requirement of Rs 755.70 crore resulting in saving of Rs 58.42 crore. Apart from these cases, supplementary provision of Rs 272.77 crore proved insufficient in six cases relating to five grants leaving an uncovered aggregate excess expenditure of Rs 228.04 crore.
To enable controlling officers of the departments to exercise effective control over spending to keep it within the budget grants and to ensure accuracy of their accounts, the State Financial Rules stipulate that expenditure during the financial year recorded in their books be reconciled by them every month with that recorded in the books of the Accountant General.
“Though non-reconciliation of departmental figures is being pointed out regularly in Audit Reports, lapse on the part of Controlling Officers in this regard continued to persist”, the document said, adding “out of 345 Controlling Officers, 50 Controlling Officers didn’t reconcile expenditure amounting to Rs 4532.74 crore which constituted 15% of the total net Revenue and Capital expenditure and Rs 6375.23 crore of Receipts which constitutes 25% of Total Receipts”.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel