CAG's agri report slams MP govt

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has cornered the state government, which had recently demanded a special package of Rs 2,500 crore for frost-hit farmers, in its report tabled in state Assembly today.

The CAG has found gross irregularities, non-implementation of schemes, weak budgetary and expenditure controls in both original and supplementary budgets, rush of expenditure at the close of the financial year and underutilisation of central assistance.

“The targets set in the Tenth and 11th Financial Five Year Plans for production of cereals, oilseeds and pulses were not achieved. The performance of quality testing laboratories, soil surveys, soil testing and training was far below the targets. There was no scientific assessment of manpower requirement and deployment. Internal audit was inadequate and ineffective. Monitoring was unsatisfactory as prescribed, departmental inspections were not conducted and district level committees were not functional,” the CAG report said.

In its report the CAG pointed out, supplementary provisions of Rs 42.4 crore obtained during 2005-2010 were proved unnecessary. Scheme funds amounting to Rs 133.5 crore were lying in the bank accounts at various levels and a total unutilised amount of Rs 28.2 crore was lying with other agencies or departments.

“The department has failed to achieve the targets of production of foodgrains set in the Tenth and 11th Five Year Plan,” the CAG observed, “substandard seeds, fertilizers and pesticides were sold to cultivators. The prescribed ratio of 4:2:1 in consumption of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium was not maintained. Soil surveys were not conducted and there were substantial shortfalls in soil testing. Shortage of technical staff affected implementation programme, poor man-power management led to irregular posting in other department and excess staff over the sanctioned strength.”

Against the budgetary provisions during 2005-2010, the CAG noted, there were savings ranging from 19 to 40 per cent, off-Budget Central assistance worth Rs 27.7 crore remained unutilised as on March 2010, Budget estimates were submitted with delays ranging from 30-75 days, original Budget provisions of Rs 40.8 crore lapsed without utilisation and supplementary provisions of Rs 42.4 crore proved unnecessary. Moreover, the CAG report said, injudicious re-appropriations or surrenders resulted in excess expenditure of Rs 11.4 crore over the remaining Budget provisions.

The CAG report further observed the State Institute of Agriculture Extension and Training (SIAET), Barkhedi Kalan (Bhopal) was nominated by department of farmers welfare and agriculture development to keep the funds released by the government of India pertaining to the off-budget schemes like National Food Security Mission and Appraisal of Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) in bank accounts. The CAG further observed that the director of the department, in addition to the above two schemes, also deposited the amount of state share and other scheme funds in the account of SIAET and the funds were released through cheques to the districts by SIAET on the basis of sanction orders by the director. “At the end of March 2010 an amount of Rs 112.8 crore (including grant-in-aid and interest of Rs 3.5 crore) were lying in bank account of SIAET, of which Rs 96.5 crore relating to Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna was drawn by Director of the department from treasury during 2007-2010. Additional director, SIAET stated that the funds could not be released to districts as sanction orders were not issued by the directorate. Keeping of funds of other schemes in the bank account of SIAET was irregular,” CAG report said.

The CAG has also observed shortage of staff and its inappropriate deployment and has recommended that budgetary and financial control should be improved to ensure preparation of realistic Budget estimates linked to programme implementation. Further, the CAG recommended the department should draw up a strategy to increase the crop area and foodgrain production and strengthening soil survey and soil testing mechanism and maintain a detailed record of beneficiaries in order to verify the correctness of selection and passing on of actual benefits.