CAG detects anomalies in various Nagaland government departments

Dimapur: Two power projects retained at a cost of INR 48.85 crore were not sanctioned by ministry of Development for North East Region (DoNER) due to “duplication” with existing facilities, preparation of unrealistic estimates, delay in submission of revised estimate, and others.

This was stated in the report furnished by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on social economic, general, and revenue sectors for the year ended March 31, 2020, which was laid during the just concluded first session of the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly.

The report stated that under the Planning and Coordination department, there were instances of short release of funds by state government and submission of false utilisation certificates to the Ministry of DoNER. Irregular diversion and deduction INR 1.96 crore towards VAT/WCT, departmental charges, procurement of vehicle and others were noticed, it said.

The report stated that the implementing department made payment of INR 2.92 crore to the contractors without actual execution of works and incurred avoidable expenditure of INR 5.58 crore due to procurement of materials at exorbitant rates.

Horticulture department

Under this department, a Centre of Excellence constructed at a cost of INR 5 crore at Yisemyong in Mokokchung was leased out to a private firm, and an amount of INR 5 crore released for creation of three Centres of Excellence (Phek, Tuensang and Dimapur) was diverted without the approval of the Indian government.

The report also stated that the Horticulture department made inadmissible advance payment of INR 10.62 crore to suppliers and also paid INR 12.14 crore to the contractors without actual execution of works under the “Mission for Integrated development of Horticulture” programme in the state.

The department procured planning materials from non-accredited nurseries and local suppliers, whereby 400 out of 481 beneficiaries reported short receipt of planting materials, said the report, adding that inadmissible assistance of INR 11.44 crore was extended to the beneficiaries under post harvest management.

Meanwhile, the annual action plan of the department was prepared without conducting base line survey, seed or planning material sub-plan and district-wise sub-plan, it said.

PHED

Under the Public Health Engineering department (PHED), the CAG report stated that Executive Engineer, PHED (Urban) Dimapur division did not exercise due diligence to check the correctness of the quantities executed before passing the bills for payment which resulted in fraudulent payment of INR 90.54 lakh without actual execution of 2,338 metres of drainage works in 18 villages.

The PHED made excess payment of INR 1.23 crore to the contractor by allowing higher rate over the state government approved rate (Action Plan) for construction of community sanitary complex and deviated from the approved action plans and specifications during actual implementation, the report stated.

Municipal Affairs department

Under the Municipal Affairs department, the report stated that the administrator of Dimapur Municipal Council (DMC) did not take any step to monitor and cross verify the actual quantities of railway wagons that transported cement from the goods office, Dimapur Railway Station. As a result, an amount of INR 30.07 lakh toll was not collected and resulted in short collection of revenue.

Finance department

Under the Finance department (Treasuries and Accounts), the report stated that lack of planning and proper monitoring mechanism with regard to procurement and supply of stamp duty materials resulted in accumulation of INR 20.77 crore stamp duty materials. It said no stock verification was conducted to confirm the actual physical availability of these materials. It further stated that failure of the drawing and disbursing officers and Treasury officers to exercise prescribed checks resulted in fraudulent, double or excess withdrawals amounting to INR 2.78 crore.

Under the Finance (Taxation) department, 21 dealers evaded Nagaland Value Added Tax (VAT) of INR 4.59 crore by utilising invalid and obsolete C forms, and an amount of INR 7.90 crore is payable by them as penal interest.

The report also stated that three dealers defaulted in payment of tax amounting to INR 2.23 crore and is liable to pay interest of INR 1.62 crore.

Further, it mentioned that the department did not adhere to the prescribed timelines leading to instances of delay in issuing of refund orders and communicating refund orders to counterpart tax authority. Lack of proper scrutiny of refund claims by the jurisdictional officers led to irregular allowance of refund in certain cases, it added.

State Lotteries

Due to flaws in implementation of Nagaland Prohibition of Gambling and Promotion and Regularisation of Online Games of Skill Rules, 2016, the CAG report stated that the State Lotteries sustained revenue loss of INR 2 crore.

It also stated that the royalty receivable by the state government remained un-assessed as the active licences neither maintained the designated accounts nor the department had any technical expertise to monitor and analyse the gross revenue of the licensees.

Motor Vehicle department

The CAG report stated that the Motor Vehicle department failed to invoke the provisions of Nagaland Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1967 and Nagaland Passengers and Goods Taxation Act, 1967, to recover the outstanding motor vehicles tax from vehicle owners resulting in shortfall of tax collection to the tune of INR 9.37 crore.

DBT in MGNREGS

The State Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) cell’s overall achievement in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), as of March 2020, was only 11.60%. The objective of the DBT was not achieved in the state as 88.40% of job card holders were paid through an intermediary level — Village Development Board — mainly due to non-availability of banking facilities, stated the CAG report.

It said that the state DBT advisory board did not conduct quarterly meetings since its constitution on July 2017 as envisaged in the DBT mission guidelines, and the DBT cell did not upload data of all centrally sponsored schemes implemented to the state and Bharat DBT portal as well as portals of the respective ministries or departments of the Central government administering the particular scheme.

The mission mode approach of the state government and implementing department for full implementation of DBT in MGNREGS “failed” as no timeline was fixed to complete the exercise, it stated.  It was also reported that delayed release of funds to the implementing department and payments to ineligible beneficiaries were noticed under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U).

PSU losses increased by 130%

The losses of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) increased by 130% in 2019-2020 as compared to 2018-2019 mainly due to deterioration in the operational results of the PSUs, the CAG report said. The overall losses of working PSUs were basically due to fewer turnovers from its operation, it added. As on March 2020, total investment of the state government and others in six PSU was INR 118.57 crore.