VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, April 29: The office of the Principal Accountant General of Jharkhand has red-flagged about a presumptive fraud in the management of the accounts and utilization of the district mineral funds.
The AG recommended accountability must be fixed upon officials who had been managing the different sets of records of funds either manually or electronically. The AG has also alleged that it was not given access to crucial documents related to the functioning and decisions of the State Level Monitoring Committee (SLMC) that controls and monitors the District Mineral Foundation Trust (DMFT).
In the annual assessment report of DMFT for the year 2020-21 sent to the Mines and Geology department, Principal Accountant General Indu Agrawal has said that the secretary of the department needs to intervene immediately to stop any presumptive fraud.
Audits carried out in six districts reveal discrepancies
The report states that there is a lack of coordination between the DMFT headed by DC and Mining officers with regard to the exchange of data records on royalty and DMFT contribution. The AG carried out audits in six districts namely Chatra, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, Ranchi, Bokaro and Lohardaga.
The AG pointed out that there are huge discrepancies in the data of the DMFT fund as per the bank statement besides those submitted by the concerned District Mining Officer and Director of Mines. Such discrepancies were found quite glaring in the DMFT of Hazaribagh and Chatra. For instance, in the Chatra district in the financial year 2019-20 the total balance of DMFT was Rs 118.51 Crore. But as per the DMO and Director of Mines, the total amount is Rs 11.45 Crore and Rs 135 Crore respectively.
“On comparison of mineral-wise, payee-wise and year-wise data of DMO Chatra and Hazaribagh with bank statements of DMFTs and figures reported by Director of Mines, it was observed that DMFT, Chatra recorded excess collection over figures of DMO, Chatra and short over figures of Director of Mines, while DMFT, Hazaribagh recorded short collection against the amounts recorded in the bank account and reported by Director of Mines. These discrepancies were not reconciled despite being flagged by audit in October 2021,” the report states. The report further states that on the issue of reconditioning, DC of districts vaguely responded. For instance, Lohardaga claimed that reconciliation was done but did not provide any report.
The report states that in the year-wise data of DMFT funds of these districts there is a huge discrepancy running into several crores.
While the AG has asked the Secretary of Mining and Geology department headed by Pooja Singhal to reply to concerns and objections raised in the report by the end of this month, it has lamented that the department has not responded to the previous report of the AG on DMFT concerning financial year 2019-20.
Accountant General claims Audit denied access to documents related to SLMC
The audit report has claimed that it did not get desired support to carry out the audit since it was not given access to crucial records and information in managing the Fund, actual reasons for lapses and deficiencies by individual officials.
The State Level Monitoring Committee (SLMC) is the apex body that controls and monitors the entire affairs of the DMFT. It said that the department did not provide any information on the functioning (policy decisions, instructions, corrective measures, monitoring etc.) of State Level Monitoring Committee (SLMC) on DMFT despite requisitions and reminders (between September 2021 and April 2022) by Audit to the Secretary of the Department and Director of Mines followed by active pursuance by audit team.
In October 2021, the Audit also requested the Jharkhand Chief Secretary in his capacity as chairperson of SLMC to intervene in the matter by providing access to the functions rendered by SLMC in handling the DMFT funds.
“However, no response was received even after six months. This impeded the audit mandate as the SLMC is the only body established under the Act to handle the Fund centrally at the Apex level. Denial of access to records of SLMC prevented audit from examining and reporting on the performance of SLMC in managing the Fund during the audit period,” the report states.
The AG said that the Secretary of the Department and Director of Mines were also requisitioned and reminded between August 2021 and April 2022 for the production of monthly collection reports of DMFT contribution and royalty. However, these were not responded to even after a lapse of more than seven months.
“This prevented the audit from ascertaining the correctness of DMFT contribution and its actual loss in the State arising from delayed promulgation of DMFT Rules. Besides, the Director of Mines and the Department could not provide data of DMFT collection and expenditure for the year 2020-21 to audit as no authority had been maintaining such records for the State as a whole,” the report said.
