CAG pulls up National Museum for irregular parking of funds outside govt account

A CAG report has come down hard on the National Museum under the Ministry of Culture for poor management and irregular parking of funds outside government account.

In its report tabled in the Lok Sabha today, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said that the National Museum failed to comply with the Central Government Account (Receipts and Payments) Rules, 1983 relating to handling of government receipts.

"It did not route receipts through the cash book nor did it undertake any reconciliation with bank accounts. As a result funds of Rs 2.26 crore were irregularly kept outside government accounts for prolonged period of time," it said.

The report also stated that the receipts from audio guide service were being credited to the account of the museum which were being deposited to the government account only from February 2017.

"Further, out of receipts of Rs 1.38 crore pertaining to period prior to February 2016, Rs 1.23 crore was deposited belatedly in the government account in June 2017 and an amount of Rs 15 lakh was still lying in this account as of October 2017," it said.

It also said that the museum received payments through swipe machine/electronic data capture (EDC) machine at the sales counter aggregating Rs 1.03 crore during November 2007 to May 2017.

But in violation of the rules, these receipts were neither routed through the cash book nor credited into the government account, the CAG said.

"Instead, receipts were credited to an account in Bank of Baroda which had provided the EDC machine. It was only after the matter was pointed out by audit that the balance in this account was transferred to the government account in May 2017," it said.

The report said that the EDC account showed the address of the account holder as that of the then director's residential address instead of the official address of the museum.

The CAG said that the matter was reported to the ministry in October last year and a reply was awaited till December.