Now Reading: CAG flags Uttar Pradesh budget lapses, seeks realistic estimates
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CAG flags Uttar Pradesh budget lapses, seeks realistic estimates
A Comptroller and Auditor General report tabled in the Uttar Pradesh assembly has criticised manual budget preparation and gaps in the state’s Integrated Financial Management System. It said Rs 219.57 crore was…
The Story in Brief
A Comptroller and Auditor General report tabled in the Uttar Pradesh assembly has criticised manual budget preparation and gaps in the state’s Integrated Financial Management System. It said Rs 219.57 crore was spent without budget provision and remains to be regularised. The report recorded 151 irregular reappropriations worth Rs 10,186.62 crore, including Rs 5,120.88 crore shifted to new services between 2018 and 2024. It also listed 1,885 cases where spending exceeded allocations, involving Rs 13,938.27 crore.
The CAG said budget surrender and reappropriation were handled through physical files before being entered into the system, causing delays and preventing real-time accounting. It asked the finance department to improve IFMS controls and make estimates more realistic. Additional chief secretary Deepak Kumar said the government had already improved IFMS and would take further steps.
The Indian Opinion
The lazy political narrative is that every audit objection proves corruption, while the opposite claim is that accounting defects are harmless paperwork. Neither follows from this report. The real concern is control: spending beyond approved limits and offline changes make legislative oversight weaker, whatever the government’s intent. The useful test is whether the next audit shows fewer excess-allocation cases and no repeat of the Rs 219.57 crore lapse.
Source: hindustantimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
