The district councils in Meghalaya need stronger internal systems in order to avoid a repeat of the regrettable situation whereby all three have not submitted their annual accounts to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for several years.
This was stated by Mylliem MDC Ronnie Lyngdoh today.
In a letter to Governor Satya Pal Malik recently, the CAG pointed out that 10 accounts – two of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), three of Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) and five of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) – are still pending for submission as on December 31, 2021. The GHADC has not submitted accounts from 2016-17 to 2020-21, the JHADC from 2018-19 to 2020-21 and the KHADC from 2019-20 to 2020-21.
Lyngdoh said that he had suggested in the past that the KHADC should have an assurance committee, along the lines of the state Assembly whereby “whatever assurance a minister gives to a member of the house, it is the duty of the Parliamentary Affairs Department to write to the concerned departments on the assurance given and, if it cannot be implemented, it has to come up with replies or action taken and simply cannot keep mum.”
Similarly, the presence of a public accounts committee in the council could have looked into the CAG observation and taken corrective measures and asked the concerned department to reply to the CAG.
He lamented that what is discussed in the KHADC sometimes ends in mere discussion and is not put into action.
“I fear that it is not the external factors but our member MDCs who are putting the council in a state of being irrelevant and do not understand the importance of the Sixth Schedule,” he added. “With power comes responsibilities and the EMs (executive members) cannot shift responsibilities. Whoever is in power in the district council has the responsibility to perform and cannot shift responsibilities,” Lyngdoh said, adding that another reason for the poor state of affairs is because of the constant regime toppling in the councils, which never lets an administration settle.
“We don’t even see one executive committee functioning smoothly within the five-year term. Every EC (executive committee) is busy to ensure that they remain in their seats while the other important works are left unattended,” the MDC said, though he added that, at least this time around, the KHADC has been stable, with the same EC in charge for the last three years.
While welcoming the possibility of a probe, he concluded by saying that if money has been utilized judiciously for the stated purposes then there should be no problem in submitting accounts for their utilisation.
Malik had said, after receiving the CAG missive, that an inquiry may be instituted to probe the non-submission of accounts.
