Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has picked holes in the West Bengal Government’s finances in 2010-11, when the Left Front was in power. Principal accountant general Sudarshana Talapatra said that the report was “released” to the State Government in March. However, the State chose not to take note of the report so far. She said that the report was tabled in the Assembly on Monday.
The State’s capital expenditure fell short of the budgetary estimates by 81 per cent in 2010-11. The report also pointed out “laxity in Budget management” as also financial discipline. It pulled up the Government for accumulation of unadjusted contingency bills worth over Rs 800 crore for a period of eight years.
“Capital expenditure, a major indicator of development activity, fell noticeably short of the budgetary estimate. Further, the quantum of capital expenditure was 26 per cent lower than that of the previous year,” the CAG report said. The report added that Bengal “accounted for a meagre three per cent of aggregate expenditure during 2010-11, which was much below the level of capital expenditure incurred by other General Category States on an average”.
The CAG said the State did not surrender the ‘anticipated” savings’. “At the close of 2010-11, under 48 grants and 16 appropriations, no part of the aggregate savings of Rs 8,172.68 crore was surrendered by the departments concerned,” the report said.
It has also drawn the attention of the State Government to the accumulation of unadjusted Abstract Contingency bills. “Though AC bills were stipulated to be adjusted within 60 days, Rs 815.29 crore drawn during 2002-03 to 2010-11 through 11,314 AC bills remained unadjusted as of March 2011,” the report noted.