ADCs’ accounts not audited for years
SHILLONG: The current financial constrains in the autonomous district councils especially in GHADC has been attributed to poor management of funds and non-submission of accounts for auditing.
A senior government official said on Tuesday that the financial crunch as prevalent in GHADC is due to the lack of auditing of funds.
Earlier on Monday, the GHADC MDCs led by NPP leader Conrad Sangma had apprised the Meghalaya Governor that the employees have not been getting salaries for the last five months.
However, the state government official said that in the absence of proper auditing of the accounts, there will always be room for financial mismanagement resulting in financial mess. The official said that there is a need to scrutinize the funds for checks and balance.
Though there is District Council Fund Rule, the councils do not follow its financial rule thereby incurring additional expenditure beyond the approved estimates, the official added.
It is mandatory to audit the accounts of the autonomous district councils every year, but the submission of accounts is not timely.
Earlier, it was reported that the three Autonomous District Councils had faulted in submission of yearly accounts to the Accountant General, Meghalaya thereby defeating the purpose of maintaining transparency and accountability in fund management by the Councils.
While the accounts of Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) have not been audited for almost 10 years, the accounts of Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) have been audited till 2009 and for Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) the accounts have been audited till the year 2010.
Surprisingly, JHADC accounts from 2005-06 to 2014-15, KHADC accounts from 2010-11 to 2014-15 and GHADC accounts from 2011-12 to 2014-15 are yet to be audited.
Though funds have been coming in from the Centre and the State, the delay in submission of accounts by the ADCs is likely to affect the future allotment of funds to the district councils by the Central Government, sources said.
