CAG exposes Congress regime's lie on UCs

Dispur yet to submit 19,648 UCs for schemes costing

Rs 14,000 crore

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, July 18: The Assam government has not submitted altogether 19,648 utilization certificates (UCs) relating to schemes costing over Rs 14,000 crore to the Accountant General (A&E), a report of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India has said, virtually setting aside various counter-claims made by the previous Congress government.

The number of outstanding UCs up to the fincial year 2011-12 was 16,236.

Utilization certificates are normally due within one year from the date of sanction, unless otherwise specified, the CAG report stated.

A significant portion of the pending UCs pertain to the Education department (12,454 UCs amounting to Rs 2,806.68 crore), followed by the department of Welfare of Plain Tribes & Other Backward Classes (1,462 UCs amounting to Rs 2,189.50 crore), Social Welfare (622 UCs amounting to Rs 1,492.19 crore), Panchayat & Rural Development (157 UCs amounting to Rs 1,157.48 crore), Fince (taxation) (738 UCs amounting to Rs 1,009.18 crore), Fince (economic affairs) (736 UCs amounting to Rs 993.23 crore) and Health (391 UCs amounting to Rs 878.79 crore).

According to the CAG, UCs outstanding beyond the specified periods indicate absence of assurance on utilization of the grants for intended purposes.

The auditor's report also noted that though principles of prudent fincial magement prescribe that expenditure at the end of the fincial year should be avoided, during March, 2015, Assam government incurred expenditure of Rs 11,234.95 crore constituting 26.13 percent of the total revenue and capital expenditure of 42,990.48 crore. Of this, Rs 3,277.68 crore (29.17 percent of the amount drawn in March) was drawn on the last day of March.