Report No. 2 of 2021 HP English Cover
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Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Social, General and Economic Sectors (Non-Public Sector Undertakings) for the year ended 31 March 2019 Government of Himachal Pradesh Report No. 2 of the year 2021 Table of Contents Description Reference to Paragraph Page (s) No. Preface v Overview vii-xi CHAPTER-I: INTRODUCTION Budget and application of resources 1.1 1 Grants-in-aid from the Government of India 1.2 2 Persistent savings 1.3 2 Planning and conduct of Audit 1.4 3 Recoveries at the instance of Audit 1.5 3 Lack of responsiveness of the Government to Audit 1.6 4 Follow-up on Audit Reports 1.7 4-5 Non-submission of Accounts / Separate Audit Reports 1.8 5 (SARs) of Autonomous Bodies and placement of SARs before the State Legislature Year-wise details of performance audits and compliance 1.9 6 audit paragraphs included in Audit Reports CHAPTER-II: PERFORMANCE AUDIT Horticulture Department Working of Horticulture Department 2.1 7-26 Urban Development Department Solid Waste Management in Urban Areas 2.2 27-52 CHAPTER-III: COMPLIANCE AUDIT Animal Husbandry Department Embezzlement of Government money 3.1 53-55 Education Department Embezzlement of funds in Himachal Pradesh University 3.2 55-58 Irregular expenditure on testing of school uniform cloth 3.3 58-60 Unfruitful expenditure on construction of building 3.4 60-62 General Administration Department Undue favour and avoidable/ wasteful expenditure on hiring 3.5 62-66 of transport helicopter Horticulture Department Loss due to defective agreement 3.6 66-68 Industries Department Mis-utilisation of Grant-in-Aid 3.7 69-70 i Labour and Employment Department Non-utilisation of funds and unfruitful expenditure on 3.8 71-73 infrastructure Planning Department Mis-utilisation of Sectoral Decentralised Planning funds 3.9 73-74 Sanctioning of inadmissible works under Vidhayak Kshetra 3.10 74-75 Vikas Nidhi Yojana Public Works Department Undue favour to contractor on suspended work of road 3.11 75-78 Revenue Department Mis-utilisation of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for 3.12 78-80 inadmissible works Technical Education Department Infructuous expenditure and blocking of funds due to non- 3.13 80-82 construction of building of Polytechnic Town & Country Planning and Urban Development Departments Planning and Regulation of Construction 3.14 82-97 ii APPENDICES Appendix Particulars Reference to No. Paragraph Page (s) No. 1.1 Statement showing funds transferred directly to 1.2 99 the Implementing Agencies in the State by the GoI under Programme/ Schemes during 2018-19 1.2 Statement of various grants with persistent 1.3 100 savings ( ` one crore or more in each case) during 2014-19 1.3 Year-wise break up of outstanding Inspection 1.6 101 Reports and Paragraphs as on 31 March 2019 of selected Drawing and Disbursing Officers 1.4 Statement showing irregularities commented 1.6 101 upon in the outstanding Inspection Reports and Paragraphs as on 31 March 2019 1.5 Statement showing submission of accounts by 1.8 102 Autonomous Bodies and placement of SARs in the State Legislature 2.1 Component/ Scheme-wise details of expenditure 2.1.1 103 incurred by Horticulture Department during 2014-19 2.2 Outlines of Government of India schemes 2.1.7.2 104 2.3 Unutilised funds lying in banks of different 2.1.7.2 105 DDOs under GOI Schemes as on 31 March 2019 2.4 Status of construction works 2.1.8.2 106-108 2.5 Details of area used in Progeny cum 2.1.9.1 109 Demonstration Orchards (PCDOs)/ nurseries, demonstration to the horticulturists, staff position and irrigation facilities during 2014-19 2.6 Details of insecticides / pesticides procured, sold 2.1.14.1 110 and balance as of March 2019 2.7 Flow chart showing handling of solid waste at 2.2.1 111 various stages 2.8 Flow chart showing responsibility framework for 2.2.1 112 management of solid waste 2.9 Summarised position of solid waste management 2.2.15 113-114 in the test checked ULBs 2.10 Achievement of Service Level Benchmarks 2.2.15 115 under Solid Waste Management in respect of test-checked ULBs 3.1 Illustrative example of relevant records 3.2 116 iii 3.2 Statement showing details of amounts short- 3.2 117-122 deposited in the bank account of HPU by ICDEOL, HPU Shimla against receipts from sale of UG/ PG/ B.Ed./ M.Ed. prospectus 3.3 Details regarding avoidable expenditure on 3.5 123-124 hiring of transport helicopter 3.4 Scheme-wise details of expenditure incurred by 3.8 125 Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board for 2014-19 3.5 Statement showing the details of works 3.10 126-131 sanctioned for religious places under Vidhayak Kshetra Vikas Nidhi Yojana 3.6 Detail of regulations as per Himachal Pradesh 3.14.5.1 132 Town and Country Planning Act/ Rules and (C) development plans iv PREFACE This Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for the year ended 31 March 2019 has been prepared for submission to the Governor of the State of Himachal Pradesh under Article 151 (2) of the Constitution of India. The Report contains significant results of performance audit and compliance audit of the departments/ autonomous bodies of the Government of Himachal Pradesh under the Social, General and Economic Sectors (Non-Public Sector Undertakings) conducted in terms of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India's (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Services) Act, 1971. The instances mentioned in this Report are those which came to notice in the course of test audit done during the year 2018-19 as well as those which came to notice in earlier years but could not be reported in the previous Audit Reports. Instances relating to the period subsequent to 2018-19 have also been included, wherever necessary. The audit has been conducted in conformity with the Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. v Overview Overview This Report contains two performance audits on (i) Working of Horticulture Department and (ii) Solid Waste Management in Urban Areas and 14 compliance audit paragraphs, involving a total financial implication of ` 203.01 crore. Some of the significant audit findings are mentioned below: Performance Audits Working of Horticulture Department Performance Audit on 'Working of Horticulture Department' included an examination of the elements of planning process, management of finances, execution of horticulture schemes/activities and internal control systems. Audit noticed deficiencies in planning, financial management, uneconomic and ineffective execution of various horticulture development activities, including creation of infrastructure, supply of improved varieties of plants, post-harvest management and ineffective internal control. The financial implication of this audit intervention is ` 97.03 crore. The significant audit findings are as under: The Department did not formulate State Horticulture Policy/ Strategic Plan with clear milestones for development of horticulture in the State. (Paragraph 2.1.6.1) Department was ineffective in controlling overall, as well as per acre, decline in fruit production during 2014-19. (Paragraph 2.1.6.2) Twelve per cent of the allocated funds (2014-19) were not utilised, while three per cent of the amount booked as expenditure was parked in saving Bank accounts of 19 drawing and disbursing officers and not actually expended. (Paragraphs 2.1.7.1 and 2.1.7.2) State Disaster Response Fund of ` 21.60 crore was irregularly diverted towards subsidy, on pesticides, provided to horticulturists. (Paragraph 2.1.7.3) In ten out of twelve physically verified Plant Cum Demonstration Orchards (PCDOs), 31 per cent area was without plantation, four PCDOs did not have nurseries and eight had inadequate irrigation facilities. (Paragraph 2.1.9.1) Fruit processing units established utilising subsidy of ` 3.21 crore remained non- functional. (Paragraph 2.1.12 (iii)) Difference in cost and quantity of pesticides, improper maintenance of data, and non- conducting of internal audit reflected ineffective internal control. (Paragraphs 2.1.14.1 to 2.1.14.3) vii Solid Waste Management in Urban Areas Solid Waste Management refers to the collection, segregation, storage, transport, processing and disposal of solid waste. The responsibility of providing solid waste management services (collection, segregation, storage, transportation, processing, and disposal) in urban areas of the State is vested with Urban Local Bodies and the Department of Urban Development. Performance Audit on 'Solid Waste Management in Urban Areas' brought out deficiencies in collection, segregation, storage, transport, processing and disposal of solid waste. While the financial implication of this audit intervention is ` 19.06 crore , the significant audit findings are as follows: Plan documents did not assess resource-gap in institutional and financial capacity, and did not address issues relating to segregation, processing and disposal of solid waste. (Paragraph 2.2.5) Inadequate funds were made available for projects of capital nature, while available funds were not fully utilised; and there were shortcomings in collection of user charges. (Paragraph 2.2.6) There were shortcomings in door-to-door waste collection, waste collection through community bins and modern underground bins in all 16 test-checked ULBs, resulting in overflow, littering and open dumping of waste. (Paragraph 2.2.7) Waste in segregated form was neither being collected from the waste generators nor were there any facilities for segregation at secondary level or at the time of transport. (Paragraph 2.2.8) Deficiencies in transportation of waste included lack of capacity in vehicles used for transporting waste to handle segregated waste, and 73 per cent of the vehicles were un-covered in the 16 test-checked ULBs.