Par panel slams UD ministry over delay in annual reports

A House panel has rapped the Urban Development ministry for delay in tabling annual reports and audited accounts of the Delhi Development Authority for three successive years, saying it amounted to "grave irregularity".
The Parliamentary Committee on Papers, in its eighth report, observed that the delays stretched from one-and-a- half-months to four months in tabling the reports between 2010-11 and 2013-14.
It also called for simultaneous tabling of two reports.
Expressing its disappointment, the committee said the delays amounted to "grave irregularity" on the part of the concerned authority which "cannot be overlooked".
"The committee has time and again emphasised that both the annual reports and the audited accounts of an organisation should be laid on the table of the House simultaneously so as to enable the MPs to get a complete picture of the working and activities of the organisation," it said.

On its part, the ministry identified acute shortage of staff in its accounts department and the vacant post of Chief Accounts Officer as some of the reasons behind the delays.

"It (committee) has also been informed that the proposal for recruitment could not be taken yet because of restructuring exercise which has been assigned by the authority to NPC/Deloitte," the House report noted.
An organisation which receives grants-in-aid from the Union government is required to lay its annual report and audited accounts within nine months of the closure of the accounting year.
Asked about the status of computerisation of accounts, the UD ministry informed the committee that the accounting process in the DDA has not yet been computerised.

The committee recommended that the ministry make all-out efforts to table the annual reports and audited accounts on time.