Audit Reports
West Bengal
Report of 2011 - Report on Panchayati Raj Institutions, Government of West Bengal
Overview
This report contains five chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of Panchayati Raj Institutions detailing organisational structure, powers and functions, flow of fund, budget allocation, Finance Commission Grants etc. Chapters 2 and 3 present findings/observations on Financial Management and Implementation of Schemes respectively. Performance review has been conducted to evaluate the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of'Total Sanitation Campaign' scheme.Outcome of review has been included in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 includes audit of transactions relates to examination of transactions relating to receipts and expenditure of the audited institutions to ascertain whether the provisions of guidelines, applicable rules, regulations and various orders and instructions issued by the competent authorities are being complied with. A synopsis of the chapters is presented in the overview.Out of grants received under the recommendations of Thirteenth Finance Commission, PRIs utilised only 57 per cent of available fund under General Basic Grants (Rs.192.93 crore) and nil under Special Area Basic Grants (Rs.0.80 crore). Second installment was due during 2010-11 but Government of India (GOI) did not release due to poor utilisation of funds by PRIs. Besides, PRIs spent Rs.1.65 crore during 2010-11 towards maintenance of assets which were not owned by PRIs. Moreover, no user charges were collected from beneficiaries by PRIs during the period.
There was a short release of Rs.1,314.29 crore to PRIs from the P&RDD's Budget allocation during 2006-11 and shortfall was 13 per cent of its budget allocation.Expenditure out of the grants released from the P&RDD's budget during 2010- 11 was not furnished by the department but total expenditure was Rs.5,063.36 crore against a total Central and State allocation of Rs.5,736.03 crore during that period.Expenditure under Plan head during 2010-11 was decreased by one per cent though receipt under Plan head was increased by 11 per cent in comparison to previous year. Total receipts under schematic fund were increased by 248 per cent while expenditure was increased by 219 per cent during 2010-11 in comparison to 2006-07. Own Source Revenue (OSR) constituted only three to five per cent of total receipts of PRIs during 2006-07 to 2009-10.
During 2009-11 State Government released only 37 per cent of stipulated amount recommended by Third State Finance Commission. Only 45 per cent of the actual release could be utilised by PRIs which was also 17 per cent of grants as recommended by SFC.Audit of 17 ZPs, one MP, 166 PSs and 3,197 GPs showed that the general precepts of financial management and the Rules framed for PRIs were not adhered to. Due to non-compliance of the rules, Annual Accounts were not prepared, lapsed cheques were not taken back into account, balances were not reconciled, cash was retained for more than the permissible limit, funds were diverted, government deposit was made in short, huge amount of advances remained unadjusted and collection of revenue became poor.Three hundred PRIs expended Rs.386.36 crore against total available fund of Rs.469.27 crore during 2007-10 without preparing annual accounts. Forty PRIs spent Rs.82.57 crore without preparing any budget estimate during 2007-10 and 1,153 PRIs expended Rs.557.65 crore in excess of budget provision during 2007-10.