Jairam Ramesh writes to CAG over delayed audits

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has sent a missive to the Comptroller and Auditor General, expressing concern over delayed audit reports adversely affecting the flagship National Rural Drinking Water Programme.

In a personal letter to CAG Vinod Rai, he has drawn attention to the ministry not being able to release funds to the states as they are not submitting audits of accounts of grants-in-aid along with the utilisation certificates.

Pointing out that the states are not able to submit the AG audit reports since they have not been conducted by the accountant general, he urged Rai to expedite the audit of accounts of the programme for 2008-2009 and 2009-10 so that state implementing agencies can submit proper audit reports in time.

He stressed that proper utilisation of funds and accounting are of prime concern for the ministry. In the absence of AG's audit report, the ministry would not be able to release the second instalment of the NRDWP funds to the states for 2011-12, adversely affecting implementation of the programme, Ramesh noted.

Jairam also drew the CAG's attention to errors in audit reports including inaccurate grants-in-aid, expenditure reported as consolidated figure for different releases and advances given to the states shown as expenditure.