The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has lamented the lack of seriousness on behalf of various ministries for defending court cases effectively, a practice hindering recoveries for national exchequer from opponent parties.
The PAC in its seven reports that were tabled in the National Assembly the other day observed, “It was noticed that the ministries/divisions did not take timely actions to defend court cases effectively at an appropriate level. Serious efforts were not made to get the stay orders vacated, in numerous cases, with the result that recoveries and administrative actions were delayed”.
The PAC felt concerned about this state of affairs and directed taking effective measures to curb this unhealthy trend in the public interest. The reports further said that it was regularly observed that the response of the ministries and departments to the audit observations was not satisfactory. “Even routine matters, which could easily have been sorted out, between the audit and departments concerned, do not receive timely attention,” the reports suggest.
The committee has emphasiszed that in future, the settlement of audit observations and reconciliation of accounts would be the primary responsibility of the principal accounting officers (PAOs).
The reports add: “Generally, it was observed that some of the principal accounting officers (PAOs)/head of the corporations/autonomous bodies, either hesitate to appear before the PAC personally or when attending the meetings, they were found not fully prepared. During the meetings, they were often obliged to seek the assistance of their subordinates, sometimes at a very low level. This practice has always been discouraged by the PAC.”
The PAC time and again observed the reluctance of ministries/divisions to produce the required record to the audit, resulting in unnecessary audit objections, which also consume valuable time of the PAC. “General Financial Rules (GFRs) were not observed by the officers/officials of some departments while spending public funds placed at their disposal. The canons of propriety laid down in the GFRs need to be emphasised by the PAOs in respective departments/organisations, which provide that every officer, incurring or authorising expenditure from public funds, should be guided by the high standards of financial propriety,” the reports say, adding that in a large number of instances, public functionaries were found violating the principles of law, propriety and probity which leads to waste and embezzlement of public resources.
“Repeated instances have come to notice where ministries/divisions obtain supplementary grants and then surrender these funds or there are savings at the end of the year,” the PAC reports reveal.
