Kolkata: The sparring between the West Bengal government and the Centre took an unprecedented turn Friday, when about a dozen top civil servants from the state held a press conference to denounce the findings of the latest CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report on the state’s finances, calling them “erroneous”.
Among the civil servants who took part in the press conference were chief secretary B.P. Gopalika, finance secretary Manoj Pant, home secretary Nandini Chakravorty and secretaries from eight departments.
The contentious CAG report held the state government responsible for not submitting 3.9 lakh utilisation certificates (UCs) in respect of grants given for projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore. The report observes that in the absence of UCs, it cannot be ascertained whether the recipients (different state departments) utilised grants for purposes for which they were given. This assumes greater importance as pendency in non-submission of UCs is fraught with the risk of misappropriation, the CAG said in its State Finances Audit Report of 2020-2021.
The West Bengal chief secretary, while addressing the media, said the state government had no pending utilisation certificates based on reports submitted by the eight departments mentioned in the CAG report: agriculture, minority affairs & madrasah education, power & non-conventional energy sources, women & child development & social welfare, health & family welfare, urban development & municipal affairs, school education, and panchayat & rural development.
“We cannot accept this CAG report, this report is not right. They have calculated the UCs since 2002, why have they not flagged it to the Accountant Generals who conducted the audits in the last 20 years? If required, we will speak to them again. We have submitted all the UCs to the Union ministries after which funds have been allocated,” said Gopalika.
Pant added that there was a need to “dispel doubts and confusion” over the CAG report.
“UCs have been sent to all the ministries, that is the fact and facts cannot be changed by way of reporting or representation or misrepresentation. We have copies of the UCs and we can resubmit them, there is no doubt in our mind. A cumulative number has been given from 2002-2021 which is misleading and creating confusion,” he said.
ThePrint spoke to senior CAG officials in New Delhi and retired officers who said this was perhaps the first time a state government had called a CAG report “erroneous”.
A senior CAG official told ThePrint that the state government should directly speak to the CAG if it found errors, instead of speaking through the media.
“The West Bengal government’s statements against the CAG report are seemingly more political than factual. UCs are issued by the state government, so naturally the data and documents are directly taken from the state for audit. So, if the UCs were submitted, the CAG wouldn’t report otherwise. There is no error. The state government must directly speak to the CAG instead of speaking through the media,” the official said.
Asked how the supreme audit institution of India ensured zero error before publishing a report, the official said that thorough checks had been put by the CAG at every level.
“Before a CAG report is submitted, it is scrutinised eight to nine times. There are three on-field and three office scrutinies. Every corresponding document is supplied for data in a report,” he added.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also raised the matter of the report with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While sitting on a two-day protest in Kolkata, she said she had written to the PM on 2 February. A copy of the letter with ThePrint reads: “Such erroneous reports give a misleading picture and are unfortunately being used by some people for false propaganda against the state administrative machinery.”
Her letter suggested she could send a copy of the submitted UCs to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) if required.
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‘CAG reports aren’t incorrect’
The State Finances Audit Report of 2020-2021 was prepared for submission to the Governor of West Bengal under Article 151 of the Constitution. It was sent to the state government on 28 February, 2022. ThePrint has a copy of the 184-page CAG report.
The contentious CAG report states that audit scrutiny revealed that as of March 2021, a total of 3,94,162 UCs in respect of grants aggregating to Rs 2.29 lakh crore had not been submitted by the West Bengal government.
Major cases of non-submission of UCs since 2002-03 up to 2020-21 pertained to three departments of panchayat & rural development (81,950 UCs for Rs 81,839 crore), school education (38,117 UCs for Rs 36,850 crore) and urban development & municipal affairs (34,837 UCs for Rs 30,693 crore) that accounted for 39.30 percent of the total UCs outstanding.
A constitutional body, the CAG plays a key role in ensuring public accountability of the executive.
In 2012, the Supreme Court while dismissing a PIL challenging the CAG report on coal blocks allotment had observed: “CAG is not a munim ji or an accountant or something like that… He is a constitutional authority who can examine the revenue allocation and matters relating to the economy. CAG is the principal auditor whose function is to go into the economy, effectiveness and efficiency of the use of resources by the government. If the CAG will not do it, then who else will do it?”
Retired deputy CAG Anupam Kulshreshtha told ThePrint that some other states had also not submitted UCs and that this was not a new phenomenon.
“The CAG is expected to audit accounts and point out if there is any mismanagement of public funds, leakages, shortcomings, and corruption after scrutinising the accounts. CAG reports aren’t incorrect. They are factual. But the issue of non-submission of UCs is not a new one; it is a problem in every state of the country. If the West Bengal government has no pending UCs till the report is published, it should release the evidence.”
The CAG report also echoed in the Vidhan Sabha. The BJP staged a walkout and raised “chor” (thief) slogans in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly Monday after Speaker Biman Banerjee rejected its adjournment motion to discuss the CAG report.
The BJP has now sought an appointment with the Governor to seek action against the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government over the CAG report.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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