The Comptroller and Auditor General has found serious discrepancy in the budget of the Assam government, which was pumping in more money than what was proposed in the budget for the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council. The excess fund sent to the autonomous district council was neither re-appropriated nor supplemented by the government through supplementary demand.
If the observation of the CAG on excess release of fund to NCHAC was any indicator, charges of massive corruption in Assam has almost been established in the report. The special audit report of the CAG, a copy in possession of this newspaper said, “Release of excess fund by the state government over the budget provisions fraught with the risk of misutilisation or misappropriation of the fund.”
In what has also been seen as an observation on the functioning of state government which ignored the constitutional arrangement to get the approval or re-appropriation of excess expenditure in the budget, the CAG report said, “There was nothing on record to show whether any supplementary grant was provided or any re-appropriation was made on excess expenditure.”
The CAG has found that principal secretary of the district council, who was allowed to hold dual charges of the district administration as well as the autonomous council for more than six years by the state government, got away with `18.50 crores without presenting any voucher or relevant records of utilisation. If it was not enough, the principal secretary also utilised `4.50 crores (Haflong) and `3.50 crores (Mahur) for discharging old liabilities without obtaining any approval of the sanctioning authority. The cheques were issued in the name of principal secretary of the district council instead of drawing and disbursing officers.
Even the guidelines of the Planning Commission on expenditure of the government fund were completely violated by all the departments, including PWD, health, social welfare, public health engineering, forest and education. It is significant the NC Hills district is among the most backward districts of the state.
The report has exposed the virtual loot of the government fund from the state’s exchequer while the district council was acting as its convenient tools for siphoning off the government fund. Observation in the NIA chargesheet said, “A nexus of militant and politician was involved in the conspiracy to defalcate huge amounts of developmental funds allocated to the NC Hills Council for the procurement of arms.”