Bhubaneswar: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit has found gaping holes in expenditure of funds allotted to different Integrated Tribal Development Agencies (ITDAs) functioning in Odisha.
The audit, covering 2018-19 to 2022-23 across 11 sampled ITDAs, found suspected misappropriation of Rs 148.75 crore from 71 bank accounts operated by Junior Engineers (JE) and Assistant Engineers (AE).
“The JEs/ AEs had conducted personal transactions of Rs 148.75 crore from these bank accounts, like withdrawal of cash through ATMs, payments through cheques, payments through POS, insurance premium payments, payments towards mobile phone recharges and UPI transactions. These were indicative of suspected misappropriation of public money by the JEs/ AEs concerned,” the report tabled in the Odisha Assembly on Wednesday said.
The report further stated that expenditures for departmental works should be incurred from Personal Ledger accounts of the ITDAs, not through the separate accounts opened in the name of JEs and AEs. “Contrary to the provisions of the OPWD Code, all payments for Departmentally executed works were remitted to the bank accounts of JEs/ AEs, which was a major failure of internal control.”
“The infrastructure development works were executed by JEs/ AEs of the ITDAs and they were paid towards cost of execution on the basis of the running account bills, raised and prepared by them as per the cost estimates, irrespective of the actual amount of expenditure. The amount was remitted to the bank accounts opened in their names by the ITDAs. This arrangement was neither as per the extant guidelines nor as per any instructions of the government,” the report added.
Poor Spending Efficiency
The audit further revealed only 70% of Rs 1,709.47 crore allocated to 20 ITDAs during the period was spent in the sampled agencies. “Out of Rs 1,709.47 crore available with the 11 sampled ITDAs during the period 2018-23, a sum of Rs 1,190.44 crore (70 per cent) only could be spent, indicating poor spending efficiency of the sampled ITDAs.”
It also pointed at a lack of annual accounts at the sampled ITDAs. “Due to non-preparation of accounts, matters pertaining to loss or wasteful expenditure as well as inefficiencies in expenditure could not be addressed.”
Invoice Issues
At nine sampled ITDAs, vouchers worth Rs 17.33 crore were available in the case record files as against the reported expenditure of Rs 20.71 crore for 490 works.
“The amount of expenditure was more than the value of vouchers by Rs 3.38 crore.”
Invoices were not available in the RA Bills for payments of Rs 3.23 crore was made towards goods and labour in 325 test-checked works. “In case of 2,476 invoices relating to 544 test-checked works involving payment of ₹22.78 crore, irregularities such as dates of invoices (384) and invoice numbers (169) not mentioned, duplicate invoices (21), invoices raised by entities not registered under GST (44) and invoices raised by entities different from the entities to whom the reported GST Registration number belonged to (14), were noticed in Audit.”
The report further stated that cost estimates of these 544 works were prepared without conducting site visit, preparing drawing and design and index maps. “In the absence of drawing and design/ plan for the departmental works, the actual deviations from the original estimates, if any, remained unverifiable.”
Tender Violations
Materials worth Rs 54.25 crore were procured from cooperative societies without tenders, despite the Co-operation Department withdrawing their privileges in 2005.
“10 sampled ITDAs procured input materials valuing Rs 54.25 crore out of total value of procurement of Rs 74.51 crore from these co-operative societies without tender. Further, the Co-operative Societies had not actually sourced the input materials from their members. They had, in turn, issued Purchase Orders to private sector vendors on nomination basis, without following any tender procedure. The price of the items offered by the Co-operative Societies were simply accepted and paid by the ITDAs. No attempts had been made to empanel a pool of suppliers for the input materials or to discover a fair market price by conducting any formal market surveys or by obtaining periodic price quotations or by examining the price lists published by public sector entities.”
Cost Overruns
The PA, ITDA, Paralakhemundi purchased musical instruments and costumes worth Rs 3.74 crore against an administrative approval of only Rs 73.60 lakh. “The value of procurement included items worth ₹ 2.09 crore, purchased through two repeat orders, without inviting fresh tenders, which was irregular.”
Recommendations
The CAG has urged the ST & SC Development Department to ensure annual audits of ITDAs’ financial statements and stop irregular bank account operations by JEs/AEs. It further stated that OPWD Code procedures should be enforced to strengthen financial discipline.
The ITDAs have been set up in 119 blocks of the state where tribal population is more than 50 per cent. As many as 22 ITDAs are functioning for socio-economic development of tribal communities.