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Paloli refutes CAG charges

Special Correspondent

Under-utilisation of funds by local self-government bodies

Paloli Mohammed Kutty has termed CAG’s charges baseless.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Comptroller and Auditor-General’s (CAG) observation that local self-government institutions in the State had utilised only 27 per cent Central government funds is baseless, Local Administration Minister Paloli Mohammed Kutty has said.

Mr. Kutty said in a statement here on Friday that the CAG had made such assumptions after including the Centrally sponsored schemes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewable Mission (JNNURM) with other schemes which had an annual target. It was pointed that out of the Rs.509.92 crore allocated for 12 schemes, only 58.24 per cent had been absorbed and Rs.209.95 crore was remaining unspent.

A sum of Rs.110.85 crore was sanctioned for the JNNURM on March 28, 2007 and the deadline for expending the funds would expire only in March 2010. The NREGP was a demand-based scheme and no target had been fixed for utilising the funds.

The CAG had made the observation after considering seven schemes, including the JNNURM whose implementation had to commence yet, he said. Mr. Kutty said the report had contradictions too. While preparing the report for the period ending on March 2007, the NREGP was implemented only in Palakkad and Wayanad. But for announcing the scheme in February 2006, no preliminary arrangements were made for its implementation.

Assembly elections and change of guard delayed the execution. But both districts were able to overcome the hurdles and Wayanad had succeeded in emerging as a national model.

There were lapses in maintaining accounts. Following government intervention, 990 panchayats had prepared the annual financial statement up to 2005-06 and 872 panchayats up to 2006-07. Considering the suggestions in the report, the government would make an analysis and take corrective steps, he said.

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