Lakhs of audit objections remain unsolved for years

Amaravati: State finance department has identified that around 35.19 lakh audit objections pertaining to Rs 16,276.08 crore has been in pending for years in 17 departments, including local bodies, Tirumala Tirupathi Devastanams (TTD), universities and housing board.

Highlights:

• 35.19 lakh audit objections pending on amount of Rs 16,276.08 crore
• Local bodies, TTD, universities and housing board are errants
• Rs 1,836.16 crore funds are spent excessively and Rs 86.25 crore misused

Non-submission of proper records on utilisation of funds, misuse of funds, violation of rules in spending, excessive pay, and audit pending in municipal corporation and municipalities for long time are some of the irregularities the finance department has identified.

According to finance department, 35.19 lakh audit objections are in pending till March 31, 2017. Records were not submitted for works worth of Rs 5,445.64 crore and dues of Rs 2,014.81 pertaining to 2,57,938 audit objections had not been collected.
Around Rs 1,836.16 crore of funds spend excessively violating the rules and Rs 86.25 crore were misused.

Officials also identified that around Rs 120.70 crore were misappropriated and Rs 115.69 crore were paid overly. They also identified that Rs 49.01 crore had been wasted in the name of various programmes and Rs 385.63 crore was spent overly.
In universities, there are 29,647 audit objections on utilisation of 1,908.91 crore. Funds diversion, violation of rules, irregularities in distribution of scholarships and funds misuse were identified in as irregularities in universities.

Similarly, the finance department has also spotted around 986 audit objections in TTD on utilisation of Rs 15.75 crore. Around 4,054 audit objections in utilisation of Rs 1,358.83 crore were identified in AP Housing Board.Audits have been in pending in municipal corporations, municipalities for a long time.

Officials told finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu that audit had been in pending for 12 years in a municipal corporation and 2-3 years in most of the urban local bodies. The average pending of audit in municipal corporations was 32 years and it was 55 years in municipalities.

In a review meeting at Secretariat on Wednesday, finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu expressed displeasure over the gross violations and irregularities in spending funds in various departments. He was also serious for non completion of audit in various departments and non submission of records and other irregularities.

He directed officials to complete audit in above departments within three months and made it clear that there should not be any audit objections by the time the next Budget would be introduced.He also suggested that retired employees of audit department can be appointed on contract basis for the period of six months to completion audits.

He also suggested that reports should be filed from concern departments on collection of dues. He warned that the government will take stern action on responsible persons if audit objections are not resolved within three months.