Hyderabad: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has found the state government’s budgetary assumptions to be unrealistic and pointed to weakness in expenditure monitoring and control.
The CAG report for 2014-15 tabled in the Assembly said: “Several policy initiatives taken up by the government were either unfulfilled or were partially executed, primarily due to non-approval of scheme guidelines /modalities, non-commencement of works for want of administrative sanction and poor project implementation, apart from non-release of funds,” the CAG report stated.
There were several instances of budgetary misclassifications on subsidies, subvention from Central road fund etc which indicated deficiencies in budget formulation. “Unrealistic budgetary allocations resulting in substantial savings, unnecessary supplementary grants, expenditure incurred without provision and excess re-appropriations, resulting in excess provision are indications of poor budget management,” the report stated.
The CAG noted that the report was prepared on the finance and appropriation account for 10 months. “The state government’s commitment to carry out reforms is reflected in its policy initiatives announced in the Budget,” it said.
The CAG report said the state registered a revenue surplus of Rs 369 crore. This had to be viewed in the light of the fact that the government had to work out its liability of Rs 651 crore on account of zilla parishad PF contributions among others. The state government did not ensure that the allocated funds were released fully.
“State outlay on education (11.57 per cent) in particular, was less that of the general category states (16.23 per cent). The share of social sector expenditure to aggregate expenditure (34.42 per cent) was lower in the state, compared to other general category states (36.50 per cent), the CAG said.
Urban local bodies not compliant
The CAG report for 2014-15 found that urban local bodies were not compliant with the municipal solid waste (management and handling) rules. Only 30 per cent of solid waste was segregated at source. “Appropriate technology was not adopted for processing of waste to minimise burden on landfill. Segregation of e-waste was not done either at source or at transfer station/ dumping yard leading to environmental hazard,” the CAG observed.
The CAG examined the municipal corporations at Nizamabad and Warangal and the Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda municipalities. The CAG audit found that despite implementation of various programmes for providing basic infrastructure and improving conditions, de-notification was not taken up.
The number of slums increased despite implementation of various schemes. Due to non-availability of sites, construction of community utility centres and community toilets were not taken up.
