SHILLONG: Following scrutiny of Social Urban Works Programme (SUWP), the CAG report on annual technical inspection on urban local bodies for the year ended March 31, 2014, which was tabled in the Assembly on Thursday, revealed that the entire sanctioned funds of Rs 79.40 lakh were released in contravention of the guidelines of the State Plan scheme in Laban Assembly constituency during 2012-13.
The works included purchase of 1000 sets of Tarpaulin for community purpose ( Rs 15 lakh ), purchase of 100 sets Desktop computers with accessories for community/students’ purpose ( Rs 27 lakh) , purchase of 4,000 numbers of PVC chairs with arms for community purpose (Rs 11,80,000) and purchase of 20 sets Xerox machines for community students (Rs 25,60,000 ) which will come to a total of Rs 79. 40 lakh.
The money for all the four works were released to the Secretary, Monitoring cum Implementation Committee, Laban Assembly Constituency.
The CAG audit observed that the Notice Inviting Tenders (NIT) was not issued for any of the works. However, three quotations were obtained from the same three for all the works.
There were no supporting documents like vouchers, utilization certificates (UCs), etc. to justify the release of funds to the monitoring cum implementation committee, Laban Assembly constituency.
According to report, the funds were released only on the strength of an undertaking that UCs would be submitted after receiving the full amount of payment.
However, till the date of audit (June 2014) no utilization certificate was furnished by the concerned implementation committee.
“There were no records to indicate the names and address and acknowledgement of the beneficiaries for which the materials were procured,” the CAG report said.
While admitting (April 2013) , the audit observations, the CEO SMB said that action would be taken against those who had not submitted utilization certificates.
Institution for disabled yet to come up
The CAG report also revealed that the Urban Affairs Department, under SUWP, sanctioned Rs 39.09 lakh for construction of Institution of Disabled cum Youth Centre of the Raid Laban Sports Social and Cultural Organisation (RLSSCO) at Kench’s Trace, Laban.
However, the estimate was subsequently revised to Rs 70.57 lakh for which revised technical sanction was accorded by the Director Urban Affairs (DUA).
The work was executed by monitoring cum implementation committee, Laban Legislative Assembly constituency and the funds were released to the secretary of the committee. An amount of Rs 53.80 lakh was released to the secretary during the years 2007-08 to 2012-13 for execution of the work. In addition, an amount of Rs 15 lakh was also released for this work from the Chief Ministers’ Special Urban Development Fund (CMSUDF).
The audit of records revealed that time for completion of the entire work was not fixed and though funds were released for the work since 2007-08, the work remained incomplete till the day of audit (April 2014), reasons for which are not on record.
The report also observed that though as per SUWP guidelines, a work should not cost more than Rs 5 lakh and should not be of highly technical nature, the total cost of the project was way over Rs 5 lakh and involved work of the high technical nature as evident from the technical sanction accorded by the DUA.
This was in contravention of the SUWP guidelines, the report observed.
“The funds for the same work were released under SUWP and CMSUDF which indicated overlapping of funds,” the CAG report observed.
“The institution for disabled cum youth centre was yet to materialize despite an expenditure of Rs 68.79 lakh and despite the work having been taken up from 2007-08 onwards,” the report added.
The matter was reported to Deputy Secretary, Urban Affairs Department through inspection report issued in September 2014, but the CAG is yet to receive the reply.
