A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on state finances for the year ending March 31, 2017, which was tabled on the concluding day of the second session of the 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly, pointed out that there were 25 cases of misappropriation, loss etc. involving government money amounting to Rs. 230.33 crore up to March 31, 2017 and on which final action was pending.
The CAG also detected various anomalies in government departments such as lack of transparency in awarding works, inadmissible payment, infructuous expenditure, evasion of tax, avoidable expenditure and undue benefit to the contractor, fraudulent drawal, irregularities in work execution etc. CAG audit report was prepared on the basis of finance and appropriation accounts and audit of the state government departments and state-owned companies and corporations.
With regard to misappropriation, loss etc. involving government money (Rs.230.33 crore), CAG has given the details of the age-profile of the pending cases and number of cases pending in each category (See Table). CAG report pointed out that the highest amount of misappropriation that amounted to Rs. 74.83 crore, involved one case in Youth Resources & Sports department, out of which an amount of Rs. 0.05 crore had been recovered so far.
The CAG report maintained that timely submission of utilisation certificates (UCs) was also a major area of concern. It said at the end of March 2017, 286 UCs involving an aggregate amount of Rs. 909.61 crore was pending for submission even after a lapse of one to six years from various departments. The accounts of the State autonomous bodies and departmental commercial undertakings were overdue; however, they were not submitted to Audit.
As on 31 March 2017, CAG stated that 25 cases of misappropriation, defalcation etc. involving Rs. 230.33 crore pertaining to 14 departments, private firms and various other departments were pending finalisation.