Panel pulls up defence ministry for sitting on 105,411 audit queries

The Public Accounts Committee has passed severe strictures against the defence ministry because of the large number of audit objections pending settlement.

The PAC report notes that that 88,024 of the 105,411 audit objections -- some of them about a quarter-century old -- pending settlement in the defence ministry at the end of June 1995 pertained to the army.

The strictures have forced the ministry to launch a massive exercise, spread over the length and breadth of the country and involving more than 8,000 offices, to clear the internal as well as statutory audit objections, particularly the older ones, in a time-bound manner without further delay.

The defence accounts department has also started sending the internal audit report to the defence secretary and to the service headquarters at various senior levels to ensure speedy action. ''If we can bring these items to the notice of policy-making levels and have things rectified, that is actually a better way of doing it,'' official sources said.

If the matter was taken equally seriously by the service headquarters and the subordinate formations, sources said it was possible to wipe out the pendency of audit objections altogether.

Distressingly, some of these outstanding audit observations relate to the period commencing from 1971-72 and could not be cleared even after a lapse of more than 23 years, the report says.

The PAC has also expressed its dismay at the plea put forth by the ministry that the pendency of 105,000 audit objections might not be much in absolute terms if viewed in the context of 10 million transactions in a financial year spread over 8,000 offices. The committee has said it is not at all inclined to accept this plea.

Although an elaborate system is stated to be in existence in the ministry for processing audit objections, the committee is in no doubt that the present state of affairs will not improve unless a rigid time limit is fixed for settlement of audit objections and appropriate action taken to fix responsibility in cases of default.

Considering the slow pace of progress in settlement of long-outstanding objections, the committee also desired that the ministry take urgent and effective steps under a special time-bound programme with a view to wiping out outstanding audit objections particularly those pending for over a year.

UNI