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Non transparency costs Telangana exchequer 10k crore
Telangana State government has found financial leakages to the tune of nearly Rs 10,000 crore in the departments due to non- transparent methods adopted in spending the huge funds earmarked in the State budget.
Hyderabad: Telangana State government has found financial leakages to the tune of nearly Rs 10,000 crore in the departments due to non- transparent methods adopted in spending the huge funds earmarked in the State budget.
The departments where financial leakages have been identified are Medical and Health, Panchayat Raj, Education, Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Civil Supplies, Agriculture, Transport, Road and Buildings and all welfare departments.
In these departments, fund flow and utilisation was not under regular scrutiny which resulted in excessive expenditure which could have been contained by introducing more transparency in the spending the funds.
Out of 1.30 lakh crore budget outlay this year, the State government earmarked nearly 35 to 40 per cent of the funds to the above mentioned important departments.
The misuse of funds has been found mainly in the finalisation of the works allotted to the private agencies. Despite many departments introduced e- procurement, lack of competitive bidding escalated the estimations for every work in these departments.
“The main reason was that the contractors formed as groups who had hijacked the tendering process by quoting high prices,” a senior official of State Finance department told The Hans India.
For instance, the official said the procurement of Sanna Biyyam (superfine rice) for residential welfare schools and procurement of rice for Rs 1/kg scheme and procurement of medicines and medical equipment by government hospitals and teaching hospitals through the present tender system had put Rs 1,500 crore loss to the State exchequer.
“The burden can be avoided by introducing competitive bidding at national and international level,” he said. Road and Building department and Municipal Administration and Panchayat Raj departments were also spending more funds than what was required.
More than Rs 3,000 crore was going directly into the pockets of the private agencies which have taken up the works in these departments. The main reason was the excess amount quoted by the agencies which were approved without verifying the estimations from time to time at ground level.
Similarly, the State is facing nearly Rs 500-700 crore financial burden due to the release of scholarships and fee reimbursement to the ineligible students. Most of them had produced fake documents and availed the benefits.
The other welfares schemes like – old age pension scheme, Kalyana Lakshmi and self employment programmes were also not exempted from misuse by the fake beneficiaries.
On the instructions of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, the Finance department has now taken up the exercise to plug the financial leakages by introducing strict measures at every level.
More competency in the bidding process and strict scrutiny of the beneficiaries of every scheme would be introduced by applying new methods like e-pass and e-bidding for every work. Direct monitoring of every work by a Secretary level official would also be introduced soon.
The Chief Minister has asked all the departments to follow strict financial discipline so that the implementation of the welfare schemes do not get affected due to fund crunch this year.
