CAG finds financial irregularities in Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has found several financial irregularities and lack of proper planning in the implementation of Centre's Rs 32,460-crore flagship Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) by state governments from 2007 to 2013 as a result of which the scheme failed to achieve its objective of boosting agricultural growth.

According to the CAG report, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, out of RKVY 393 projects worth Rs 6,017.2 crore that were selected for audit, financial irregularities and underperformance was detected in 150 schemes that constituted 38 per cent of the total.

Financial management under the scheme was deficient as many instances of inflated expenditure, inadmissible expenditure, etc. were noticed, the report states.

An important area of concern was submission of incorrect utilisation certificates (UCs) by state. Even though expenditure was not incurred out of the grant received under the scheme, the states submitted utilisation certificates for the entire grant received by them.

"Consequently, expenditure incurred at a given point remained unascertainable", it said.

Against allocation of Rs 32,460.45 crore during 2007-08 and 2012-13, Rs 30,873.38 crore was released to 28 states and seven Union Territories.

The CAG, which conducted performance audit from inception of RKVY from 2007-08 to 2012-13, also said that instances of inflated figures of expenditure were noted.

As of September 2013, UCs for an amount of Rs 2,610.07 crore were outstanding from 26 states. Short release of funds worth Rs 154.65 crore was noticed in three states adversely affecting the project delivery.

The CAG said that excess expenditure of Rs 106.13 crore without the approval of state-level sanctioning committee was noticed in 50 projects in seven states. "Grants of Rs 759.03 crore instead of being used for the intended purpose were found parked in personal ledger accounts and personal bank accounts in 11 states", it said.

"In Haryana, Maharasthra, Meghalaya and West Bengal, diversion of RKVY funds (Rs 114.45 crore) to other schemes was noticed", it added.

Besides, the CAG audit also found various cases of delay in release of funds at various levels from state governments to nodal agency and from nodal agency to implementing agency.

"RKVY remained without any financial scrutiny through the internal audit of the ministry and the monitoring mechanism was not very effective," the report observes.