Chief Minister Conrad Sangma today said that huge amounts of funds from the 15th Finance Commission for district councils in the State have remained unreleased as the councils failed to submit utilisation certificates for previous funds.
Speaking to media persons here today, Sangma said that under the 15th Finance Commission, certain guidelines need to be followed for release of funds.
“We have faced challenges because the Government of India had to put certain conditions for utilisation of the funds. We found out ways in which we could give the funds that the district councils could implement. But in some cases, the utilisation certificates did not come in and because of that funds amounting to hundreds of crore of rupees for development purposes are pending with the 15th Finance Commission,” he said.
According to Sangma, the Centre wanted to streamline the entire implementation of the developmental schemes proposed by the district councils and for that certain guidelines were introduced to ensure that money was spent properly and utilisation certificates are submitted so that more funds would come.
“Not all but some of the district councils have failed and that will also affect the others as the 15th Finance Commission’s funds have been given for rural bodies as a whole,” he said.
When asked if he thinks the district councils are slowly turning into a liability more than an asset, Sangma said, “I don’t agree with that statement because district councils have a very important role to play especially keeping in mind our traditions, our land-holding rights, and our different cultural aspects. And so it’s a very important institution and it must be kept and it must be maintained and it must be allowed to function also.”
However, he said that financial management and internal management of the administration have to be improved by the councils.
“We need to bring in a more professional approach and be more prudent. We need to be more careful in how we fund. So, overall administrative and financial reforms are necessary and they have to think of ways in which they can augment their revenue and also look at how they can reduce their manpower,” he added.
Sangma said that the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) is one of the better-managed district councils as it managed to keep manpower in check and balance levels and not resorted to random staff appointments. This, according to him, has helped the KHADC to do better than others.
