PAC picks holes in debt waiver scheme

A parliamentary committee has picked holes in the ambitious agriculture debt waiver and debt relief scheme of the UPA government saying it could not achieve its goals due to a variety of reasons including violation of guidelines and poor monitoring.
Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in its draft report on the scheme said there was a "flagrant display of financial and administrative indiscipline by the Department of Financial Services (of the Finance Ministry), nodal agencies and implementing institutions in the implementation of such a welfare scheme."
The draft report is set to come up for adoption before the committee shortly.

The draft report points that apparently, vital lists of intended beneficiaries were prepared in a "cavalier manner" as these were replete with mistakes, leading to serious financial lapses.
"It appears that the Department of Financial Services, the apex authority responsible for administration and implementation of the scheme, turned a mute bystander after issuing the guidelines of the scheme in May, 2008," it observed.
According to March 2010 provisional estimates, the scheme was likely to cost the government an approximate Rs 65,318 crore and benefit 3.69 crore farmers.
But detailed examination revealed errors of inclusion and exclusion at the beneficiary level, reimbursement of loans to micro finance institutions in violation of guidelines, tampering, overwriting and alteration of records, non-extension of benefits to entitled farmers and deficient monitoring of the scheme.