The Assam government has not been able to reply more than 26,000 objections of comptroller and auditor-general of India which involves the utilisation of whopping Rs 8,000 crores in Assam.
When contacted, the principal comptroller and accountant-general of the Northeast, Mr Mukesh Prasad Singh, told this newspaper that inspection report has already been submitted to the Assam government. He also admitted that more than 26,000 objections are pending for clarification of the state government officials.
The state government sources, which also confirmed to have received the inspection reports, disclosed that the CAG has also found 20 mega cases of embezzlement of the government fund, but departmental heads could not satisfy the CAG which has now sent the report for final publication. Sources however, refused to elaborate the details.
According to fiscal transaction summary of the CAG, the Assam government had received an amount of Rs 18,077.04 crores as tax revenue, non-tax revenue and share of Union taxes and duties in 2008-09 alone. However, the utilsation of the fund and its accounting was found to be very poor, indicating serious misappropriation.
Informing that performance of the Assam government in utilisation of these funds may proved to be one of the worst in the country, sources said that some of the serious objections of the CAG have deliberately been ignored by the state government since 2006. According to rule the state government is supposed to clarify the objections of the CAG within six weeks, but in absence of any authority into the hands of CAG, even the serious charges of misappropriation of the fund go unnoticed. In case of Assam, sources pointed out that the state government has not been able to reply of 70-80 per cent inspection reports of the CAG pointing out serious misappropriation of the fund. Sources in the CAG however claimed that Assam and Mizoram tops the lists of the states which have failed to submit its reply on the inspection reports of the CAG. A state having a population of 20 lakh had got about Rs 37,000 crores in 2008-09 from the Central government for its development.