Meghalaya’s Health Department, C&RD and 4 others department fails to submit UCs to CAG

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 8, 2023

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report viewed the huge pendency in submission of Utilization Certificates (UC) by six major departments of the Meghalaya Government as fraught with the risk of fraud and misappropriation of funds.

The report urged the Government to monitor this aspect closely and not only hold the concerned persons accountable for submission of UCs in a timely manner to the Finance Department as well as PAG (A&E) but review disbursement of further Grants to defaulting Departments.

According to the CAG report, the six major defaulting departments which have not submitted UCs and their percentage out of total outstanding amount under Grants-in-Aid are Community and Rural Development Department (Rs 1137.40 crore, 47.92 per cent), Planning Department (Rs 457.58 crore, 19.28 per cent), Health and Family Welfare Department (Rs 272.22 crore, 11.47 per cent),Social Welfare Department (Rs 198.99 crore, 8.38 per cent), Education and Human Resource Department (Rs 171.78 crore, 7.24 per cent) and Border Areas Development Department (Rs 37.36 crore, 1.57 per cent).

In the absence of UCs, it could not be ascertained whether the recipients had utilised the grants for the purposes for which these were disbursed.

Further, it is likely that the funds received were not spent and were being held in the bank accounts of the respective departments.

In the absence of UCs being submitted by the department it is impossible to gauge the implementation status of the scheme for which funds have been received.

Rule 515 (Appendix 14) of the Meghalaya Financial Rules, 1981, provides that unless otherwise ruled by the State Government, every grant made for a specified object is subject to the implied conditions that the grant will be spent upon that object within a reasonable time (one year from the date of issue of the letter sanctioning the grant, if no time-limit has been fixed by the sanctioning authority).

Grantee Institutions receiving Grants-in-Aid from Government are required to furnish Utilisation Certificates (UCs) to the Principal Accountant General (A&E) countersigned by the disbursing authority after thorough verification.

The purpose for which the Grants-in-Aid were utilised can be confirmed only on receipt of UCs which would safeguard against diversion of funds for other purposes.

To the extent of non-receipt of UCs, the expenditure shown in the accounts can neither be treated as final nor can it be confirmed that the amount has been utilised for the intended purposes.

Non-submission of the UCs means that the authorities have not explained as to how funds were spent over the years.

There is also no assurance that the intended objectives of providing these funds have been achieved.

This assumes greater importance if such UCs are pending against Grants-in-Aid meant for Capital Expenditure.