Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) detected anomalies in various departments in its report on Social, Economic, General and Revenue sectors for the year ended March 31, 2022 (Report No. 2 of 2023), which was tabled on the last day of the second session of the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA).
DoNER schemes: A Subject Specific Compliance Audit (SSCA) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) funded schemes under Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) and North East Special Infrastructure Development schemes (NESIDS) was done covering the projects sanctioned during 2016-17 to 2020-21.
The SSCA revealed that the estimates in the DPRs were unrealistic, indicating lack of proper planning, survey and economic appraisal before preparing these. The DPRs and concept notes were prepared without field visits to assess the actual requirements and without analysing the actual bill of quantity (BoQ) required for the project.
In all the five projects of NLCPR and NESIDS, there was delay in release of fund at various levels from the date of proposal by the implementing department to the date of release by the Finance Department, which impacted timely completion of projects. Delay in completion of transmission line resulted in idle expenditure of sub-station constructed at Rs.68.58 crore. The state government irregularly deducted departmental charges of Rs.2.85 crore, while incorrect utilisation certificates (UCs) were submitted to the Centre, which was against the scheme guidelines.
Non-inclusion of contract clause on interest bearing mobilisation advance in the terms and condition of the contract agreement led to loss of Rs 3.91 crore.
Rates of certain items were enhanced over the approved rates of DPR without obtaining approval from the competent authority, resulting in excess payment of Rs 20.09 crore to a contractor. There were also instances of excess payment of Rs. 1.73 crore by recording incorrect entries in the MB without actual execution of work.
The SLEC meetings were not held as mandated and even in the meetings held during the period, no issues related to on-going NESIDS projects were discussed. Except for one project, no inspection was conducted on the projects funded under NESIDS, the report noted.
Special Assistance funds: SSCA of funds released under “Special Assistance– Creation of Capital Assets” was carried out covering the Special Assistance (SA) funds sanctioned by the Centre from 2018-19 to 2020-21. The SSCA revealed that nine out of 14 projects remained incomplete, but were shown as complete as per the progress report.
There was non/short release of funds (Rs.57.38 crore out of Rs. 76.72 crore) to seven out of 14 departments by the state government for which fund were allocated by the Centre to complete the earmarked projects.
Altogether Rs. 38.58 crore was diverted to meet liabilities of the departments on unapproved projects other than the earmarked projects.
An amount of Rs. 5.29 crore out of Rs. 70.01 crore was utilised to meet expenditure of revenue nature instead of capital expenditure which was in contravention to the Central government’s sanction as well as financial propriety and accounting principles.
Release of fund to two implementing departments were delayed by seven to 11 months after the financial year for which it was sanctioned.
DDUGJY and Saubhagya: A performance audit on implementation of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya) was done for the period 2014-15 to 2020-21.
The audit revealed that the Department of Power, Nagaland (DoPN) completed electrification works in 793 villages (88%) under the scheme as on March 31, 2021 against the envisaged target of 900 villages.
The department could not achieve the objectives of DDUGJY/Saubhagya schemes to provide 24×7 power supply and for reduction of aggregate technical &commercial (AT&C) losses.
There was cost-overrun of Rs. 4.66 crore on re-tendering, forfeiture of additional Central grant of Rs. 11.45 crore due to delay in completion of works and extra expenditure of Rs. 2.46 crore on procurement of consumer meters.
The department incurred idle expenditure of Rs. 25.74 crore on metering of rural BPL households, Rs. 9.85 crore on metering of distribution transformers and free electricity connections provided to ineligible beneficiaries. The quality assurance inspections and monitoring were ineffective, the report stated.
Kohima Smart City: A performance audit of Kohima Smart City Mission (KSCM) carried out from 2016-17 to 2020-21 revealed that out of 61 prioritised works under Kohima Smart City development, detailed project reports (DPRs) of only 13 works were completed. Out of the completed DPRs, only eight works were completed (October 2021).
The report said the delay in implementation of works was attributable to delay in release of fund by the funding agencies and injudicious utilisation of available resources by the management.
The CAG report also noted that Kohima Smart City Development Limited (KSCDL) did not prioritise the core infrastructure elements nor prepared any feasibility report and revenue model. As a result, KSCDL failed to attract public-private partnership (PPP) and implementation of projects through convergence.
Further, it stated that improper planning in implementation of project beyond the scope and objective of SCM resulted in infructuous expenditure of Rs 70.75 lakh on procurement of water ATM and water tanker. Further, non-assessment of project feasibility of multi-utility duct before implementation resulted in infructuous expenditure of Rs 85.57 lakh.
It also pointed out that the state government did not release its share of funding, while the Centre did not release the subsequent instalments of Rs 300 crore.
PM-KISAN: A performance audit on implementation of Pradhan Mantri-Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme was carried out for the period 2018-19 to 2020-21. The audit revealed that out of 3,44,983 applications uploaded, 2,13,682 applications were accepted, while 71,196 applicants were rejected as they were either ineligible or had furnished incomplete details. The applications of 60,105 self-registered farmers were pending for approval by the implementing Department.
New registration of beneficiaries was temporarily suspended (March 2020) by the implementing department as the state had achieved the overall saturation target. Temporary suspension of new registrations deprived 23,144 beneficiaries from the scheme benefits in four test-checked districts.
The owners of cultivable land beneficiaries were not verified by the administrative officers concerned and countersigned by the deputy commissioner (DC). As the names of operational land holders/farmers were not available on records, the beneficiaries could not be correlated with the state’s Agriculture Census 2015-16.
Further, no landholding records were maintained at the village level and documents to cross verify the land-ownership of PM-KISAN beneficiaries was also not available with the government.
Deficiencies in identification of beneficiaries and delay in reporting of death cases led to payment of scheme benefits to ineligible beneficiaries and multiple beneficiaries from the same family.
Incorrect bank account numbers, names, gender, unique biometric identities, etc, were captured in the PM-KISAN database, indicating lack of appropriate input controls. Inaccurate data entries resulted in rejection of records during validation and failed transactions which deprived genuine farmers from availing the scheme benefits.
While state and district-level review/monitoring committees were not constituted, there were delays in constitution of state project monitoring unit, and state and district-level grievance redressal monitoring committees.
Non conduct of social audit and lack of participation of other stakeholders in implementation of the scheme impacted timely detection of deceased and ineligible beneficiaries, rectification of incorrect records, etc.