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Utilisation certificates worth ₹7,592 cr remain pending with J'khand ULBs till Mar 2022: CAG
Utilisation certificates worth ₹7,592 cr remain pending with J'khand ULBs till Mar 2022: CAG
Ranchi, Utilisation certificates worth ₹7,592 crore under different heads remained pending with several Urban Local Bodies in Jharkhand as of March, 2022, according to a CAG report tabled in the assembly on Monday.
The annual technical inspection report on local bodies also showed that detailed contingency bills of ₹39.48 crore remained outstanding till March, 2022.
In Jharkhand, there are 50 ULBs, including nine municipal corporations, 21 municipal councils and 19 nagar panchayats.
The audit scrutiny of records of 20 selected ULBs and the Urban Development and Housing Department was conducted for the period from 2017-18 and 2021-22.
"The significant quantum of UCs worth ₹7,592.10 crore was pending for long periods of time , indicated poor monitoring mechanism for watching over utilisation of funds. This was fraught with the risk of misutilisation or non-utilisation of funds for intended purposes," it stated.
The ULBs were financially dependent on grants and loans from the government, as their own resources were not sufficient to meet expenditure needs, it said.
"There was short receipt of the fourteenth finance commission grants of ₹243.36 crore with respect to Basic Grants and ₹245.09 crore with respect to Performance Grant against the allocation for the period 2015-16 to 2019-20," the report said.
The CAG report on state public sector enterprises finds as many as 112 projects worth over ₹194 crore initiated by the Jharkhand State Building Construction Corporation Ltd were either dropped or stalled due to non-availability of land, public hindrances or delays by contractors.
It also observed that the company's inability to foresee the adverse impact of constructing the buildings in the vicinity of a high-tension transmission line led to the completed building of a degree college remaining idle, rendering the expenditure of ₹12 crore unfruitful.
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