SHILLONG, March 23: District Council Affairs Minister Lahkmen Rymbui has defended the delay in submission of the audit report on the finances of Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC).
The order to conduct an audit was given after allegations of misutilisation of central funds were flagged.
“If you want to do a report just for the sake of doing it, it will not take time but to do justice to the report it will take some time,” asserted Rymbui.
The State BJP, an ally of the NPP-led MDA Government, had earlier alleged corruption worth crores of rupees sanctioned under the Special Assistance Grant (SAG) in the JHADC and GHADC and had demanded a CBI probe into the alleged anomalies, but the state government ordered an audit of the GHADC finances.
The BJP had stated that the allegations were based on RTI findings.
Meanwhile, earlier in January this year, it was informed that the Directorate of Local Fund Audit (DLFA) had already submitted the audited report into the alleged misappropriation of funds in the JHADC on December 23 last year.
Divulging on some of the findings, official sources said that the JHADC had temporarily diverted the funds received under the SAG scheme for payment of salaries of the staff.