As a result of a report criticising the financial reporting standards of the three autonomous district councils in the state, the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) will appoint a chartered accountant and change the process surrounding discretionary grants to strengthen its bookkeeping.
In a letter to Governor Satya Pal Malik earlier this month, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) pointed out that 10 accounts – two of the KHADC, three of the JHADC and five of the 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.
Following the CAG’s observations, the KHADC has decided to appoint an experienced chartered accountant who will also function as inquiry officer and guide the accounting staff and heads of department on how to properly maintain their accounts, receipts, cash books, etc and report to the KHADC executive committee on his/her findings.
“We have also tasked the maintenance of the records of the council assets to the Executive Member in charge of council assets who has formed a committee to maintain all the records and we will be informing about this step taken to the CAG,” KHADC chief Titosstarwell Chyne said, adding that the EC has also decided to conduct an internal audit once every three months so that all accounts are maintained properly.
Relating to the discretionary grant to the MDCs to help their constituents, Chyne said that all these years the grant has been released before the submission of utilisation certificates and most of the MDCs fail to submit the UCs on time, which is something that is periodically reflected in the CAG reports.
“We have now decided that the discretionary grant to the MDCs will be released only after the MDCs have submitted their UCs. The MDCs will first have to spend and then submit the cash memos, receipts, etc as proof for the amount they have spent and then the grants will be released as per the sanction earmarked to the members,” he said.
Meanwhile, on the misuse of funds in 2012-13 by the council’s Forest Department, the CEM said that the case has been settled and the inquiry committee has fixed amounts that are to be periodically deducted from the salaries of those responsible for the negligence.
It was found by the CAG that there was a short deposit or misappropriation of several lakhs of rupees of forest royalty in 2012-13.
On this, Chyne said, “The inquiry report suggested to the EC that the main accused, who is a plantation chowkidar and who has admitted before the inquiry committee that he misused Rs 37 lakh in royalties, will have to pay Rs 10,000 every month until the total that was misused is recovered.”
On the other hand, the Chief Forest Officer was penalised Rs 5 lakh for failing in his responsibility to look into the matter.
