Shillong, Aug 29: The Comptroller and Auditor General has flagged serious lapses in Meghalaya’s budget management for 2024-25, citing weak forecasting, last-minute decisions and misuse of Contingency Fund.
In its State Finances Audit Report, the CAG said advances were drawn from Contingency Fund to spend across 56 schemes. Total expenditure was Rs 2,434.89 crore, of which Rs 562.46 crore came from Contingency Fund.
Drawing for non-emergent purposes, leaving funds unutilised and failure to recoup within a year violates Contingency Fund of Meghalaya Act, 1972, it said.
The report noted significant variation between Budget Estimates, Revised Estimates and actuals, leading to savings of Rs 5,671 crore. Of this, Rs 5,554 crore or 97.94 per cent was surrendered on the last day of the financial year, reflecting poor mid-year monitoring.
The audit also found non-essential supplementary grants and re-appropriations despite underutilisation of original provisions, undermining legislative oversight, while excess expenditure of Rs 9,725.87 crore was recorded, largely for public debt servicing, pointing to poor forecasting of committed liabilities. Several excesses remain unregularised since 1971-72.
Cash management was another area of concern. The state maintained minimum cash balances on 298 days by availing Ways and Means Advances and Special Drawing Facility amounting to Rs. 11,282.25 crore, and paid interest of Rs. 10.26 crore.
The CAG said trends show weak budget realism and financial discipline affecting quality of spending. It recommended strengthening estimation linked to past trends and capacity, timely surrender of savings, stricter control over supplementary grants and expediting regularisation of excess expenditure.
