Presentation on Settlement of Pending Observations of IPAI 35 th Review Meeting of Finance Controllers Goa

Review by IPAI: - State Implementation Societies of SSA are required to keep proper accounts of funds received by them and the expenditure from the funds for this purpose. In order to ensure that the State Implementation Societies of SSA are keeping the accounts of the funds properly. MHRD has appointed the Institute of Public Auditors of India to conduct concurrent financial review and monitoring of progress of SSA, NPGEL & KGBV. IPAI has so far conducted concurrent financial review and monitoring of SSA of all the States/ UTs in 3 phases. State Implementation Societies are required to take remedial action and submit action taken reports to the Govt. of India. Internal Audit : - Similarly, State Implementation Societies may also consider the engagement of credible organizations or firms of Chartered Accountants to undertake internal audit of SSA accounts.

The observations of IPAI mainly relate to:  Governance of SSA:  General Body Meetings and Executive Committee Meetings: General Body Meetings and Executive Committee Meetings are not being held at the prescribed intervals.  Meeting of District level committees: District level committee meetings are also not being held at regular intervals.  Planning process: Planning and budgeting needs to be initiated at habitation level with the involvement of the community. In many cases it has been observed that the planning is not initiated from habitation level.  Utilization of funds: IPAI study report reveals that due to inefficient implementation of various SSA interventions, large amount of funds remain unutilized each year. Amounts of unspent balances of pre project activities and DPEP continues with some states.

 Maintenance of Books of Accounts  Cash book: Cash book is not being maintained particularly below district level. Individual entries are not being attested by DDOs on daily basis. It is not being closed everyday. Separate cash book for each year is not being maintained in many of the schools. Some of the schools are not maintaining cashbook properly.  Maintenance of Vouchers: Vouchers of payment are not being numbered serially, not defaced after payment and are not being kept properly at different levels.  Journal & Ledger : Maintenance of Journal and Ledger is not done properly in many schools.  Bank Reconciliation Statement : There is some improvement in preparation of Bank Reconciliation Statement at the level of SPO & DPOs but much remains to be done at below district levels.  Differences in Opening and Closing Balances: Cases have been noticed where opening balances and closing balances do not tally. Contd…..

 Bill Register and Cheque Issue Register : These are not being maintained properly and regularly at different levels in some States.  Accounts Registers : Register of temporary advances, register of works, advances register and assets register are not being maintained properly.  Advances treated as Expenditure : In some states advances are being treated as expenditure even though the amount remains unspent.  Settlement of Advances : Large amount of advances remain outstanding for long periods of time.  Improper Utilization of Grants: Teacher grant and maintenance grant have not been utilized properly in some schools. Contd…..

 Internal Audit: Internal audit is either not conducted or is being conducted partially in some of the states. The reports of the internal auditors are not being put up to the Executive Committee. Remedial action is not taken on the findings of the internal auditors.  Delay in submission of Utilization Certificates: Submission of Utilization Certificates has been badly delayed in some States. UCs have been accepted without verifying actual expenditure.  Computer Aided Learning : Many schools have been supplied the computers which are lying idle for want of trained teachers or lack of electricity.  School display board: There are schools which do not have display boards for indicating receipt and expenditure of fund for the information of community at large. Contd…..

Arunachal Pradesh Comments of the SIS against observations of IPAI in Phase I, II & III reports have been considered Phase I report has been treated as settled. Only one Para No remains outstanding of Phase II report and further comments of GOI conveyed on to SIS for Phase III study report. Some of the serious observations requiring immediate attention of SIS are: Phase-III Para 2.7: Advance of Rs lakhs for remain outstanding with officials of SPO. Para 7.1.4: Deputy Director of School Education informed the study team that FTBs were not received in & But the information given to IPAI is that the whole amount of Rs lakhs for 2009 & 2010 was spent by district. If the payments are made without verification by districts regarding receipt of Books? Action taken by State Implementation Societies

Chap 9 A: Diversion of SSA funds of Rs lakhs for purchase of 194 fire extinguishers without any approval of PAB. Chap 9 C: CGI sheets & Ridgings costing Rs lakhs were purchased through limited tenders instead of open Tenders which could have fetched lower rates. 9(B) (a): Rs lakh to Rs lakh were spent extra where discount was available. 9(B) (b): Rs lakh to Rs lakh were spent extra for purchase of radio sets where no discount was available. SIS to submit the final action taken report on all pending observations. Contd…..

Dadra & Nagar Haveli Comments of SIS against IPAI observations in Phase I study report were considered in the Ministry and further GOI comments conveyed on 31 st Oct since then final action taken report of SIS is awaited. Action taken report of SIS on Phase II & III study report is awaited since July 2010 and March 2012 respectively. SIS to look into all unsettled Paras of IPAI study reports of phase 1,2 &3 and arrange submission of action taken report at the earliest.

Goa Action taken report on Phase I & II study report of IPAI is awaited from SIS since Sept and August 2010 respectively. Comments of SIS on the observation of IPAI in study report ph. 3 are awaited since March Some of the serious observations requiring immediate attention of SIS are: Phase-I Para 4.4.1: 13 Bills of printing of M/s Holy Faith International Pvt. Limited amounting to Rs lakhs are not available in office. Para 8.5.2: Payment of maintenance grant to schools being run in rented premises of Rs. 6,30,000/- paid to 61 Govt. Rs. 5000/- for two years ( & ) needs to be recovered or adjusted in payable rent.

Phase-II Para : Expenditure of Rs lakhs incurred on procurement of inadmissible items such as bicycles, rain coats etc. needs to be recovered from Govt. of Goa. Para 7.6: Excess payment of Rs lakhs to Goa Board of Secondary & Higher Secondary Education not recovered by SSA norms. Phase-III Para 9.5(a): : Rs /- paid to Goa Board of Secondary & Higher Secondary Education in excess of the value of FTBs supplied. Para 9.5(b): Rs /- needs to be recovered from Goa Govt., Education Department for supply of FTBs to primary school children which were to be supplied by Goa Govt. SIS SSA Goa is required to take remedial action and submit action taken report on unsettled IPAI observations of Phase I, II & III study reports. Contd…..

Jammu & Kashmir: Comments submitted by SIS on Phase I study report of IPAI have been considered and found satisfactory except in respect of Para nos. 4.2, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7 (c), 4.8(a) to (d), 4.9(d) and Comments of SIS against observations in IPAI Phase II have not found adequate against some of the Paras as intimated to SIS on 23rd Dec similarly, all the comments of SIS against Paras of Phase III study report were not found satisfactory as intimated to SIS in Sept Some of the serious observations requiring immediate attention of SIS are: Phase-III Para 3.1: Irregular payment of salary to Head Teachers from to

– Rs lakhs – Rs lakhs – Rs lakhs Total – Rs lakhs Rs lakhs paid to RET teachers on regularisation of their services by the State Govt. The amount of Rs is required to be recovered from the State Govt. Phase-III Para (b): Irregular purchase of Bank Draft of Rs crore on the last day of resulting in loss of interest of Rs lakhs. SIS is to take action to get all the pending observations of IPAI in Phase I, II & III settled at the earliest. Contd…..

Puducherry Comments against observations in first Phase study report have been considered and the report has been treated as settled. Comments on observations of Phase II study report are under consideration and comments on Phase III study report are awaited since March Some of the serious observations requiring immediate attention of SIS are: Phase-II Para 9.6: Irregular supply of computers to officers & offices not connected with SSA and to primary schools. Para 9.8: Irregular payment VAT of Rs. 27, on supply of educational books.

Contd… Phase-III Para 6.3: Maintenance grant paid to ineligible schools in & Amount may be worked out and refunded to SSA account. Para 14.3: Rs lakhs spent for purchase of play Rs /- from M/s Muthukumar Kings Marketing, Thanjuvur without inviting tenders. SIS to ensure submission of comments on all observations of Phase II & III study reports.

Tamil Nadu Phase I study report has been treated as settled. Comments of SIS on observations of Phase II study report are awaited since April 2009 and SIS is yet to submit comments on IPAI observations in Phase III study report. Some of the serious observations requiring immediate attention of SIS are: Phase-II Para 6.3: Misuse of maintenance grant for purchasing TV, DVD Player etc. amounting Rs crore. Para 8.2: Funds of KGBV amounting to Rs lakhs allowed to remain with NGOs in District Erode. In other districts Rs lakhs were allowed to remain with NGOs in Para 10.14: Rs crore diverted to purchase of ABL cards from the provision for out of school children scheme in

Phase-III Para 1.7: Project costing Rs lakhs “Better school Education Planning & Management by a GIS&GPS” was allocated without inviting Tenders to along with Bharthidasa University Trichy for completion by March Rs lakhs >98% was already paid in October % amount not retained. No report has been received as yet. Para 6.1: Excess expenditure of Rs lakhs in for payment of TG needs to be refunded to SSA Account. Para 12.2: Excess payment of Rs lakhs to Govt. of Tamil Nadu as salary of upper primary teachers against unfilled posts need to be recovered from Govt. of Tamil Nadu. SIS to ensure submission of comments on all IPAI observations in Phase II and Ph. III study reports. Contd…..

Tripura Comments against observations in Phase I & II study reports have been considered and final action taken reports awaited. Comments against observations in Phase III study report are awaited. Some of the serious observations requiring immediate attention of SIS are: Phase-II Para 4.6(i): SSA funds of Rs lakhs were diverted to school education department in & Para 4.6(ii): Rs lakh from SSA was paid to Tripura State Legal Services Authority resulting in loss of interest. Para 6.4.1: Rs lakh from SSA out of Rs lakhs given for construction of building for SPO still remains unrecovered. Para 6.4.2: Rs lakhs paid from SSA funds for construction of office building for North District in violation of SSA norms.

Contd….. Phase-II Para 6.4.3: Rs lakh was paid as rent for State Project Office in violation of SSA norms. State was required to provide infrastructure for SSA. Para 6.4.4: Rs lakh paid as rent by DPO / North for hiring accommodation for coordinators and Rs lakh for construction of Kutcha room for DPO. Expenditure of Rs lakh was against the norms of SSA. Para 10.2: Rs lakh was spent to provide FTBs to non eligible students. Para 10.3: Rs lakhs was paid to SCERT in for arranging Text Books. No records available in office. No UC kept on record. Para 10.4: Rs lakh were not recovered as penalty from the printers. Para 10.5: Rs lakh paid as Air transportation charges to Saraswati Press Ltd., Kolkata in violation of terms & conditions of the contract for supplying text books.

Phase-III Para 2.6: Rs lakhs from TT, EGS etc. diverted to CWs without approval of PAB. Para 4.1: During SERT diverted Rs lakhs pertaining to Teacher Training to Directorate of School Education and State Council of Science & Technology (SCST). Para 9.2: Extra expenditure of Rs lakhs for getting excess books printed. Para 9.3: Though the bid of M/s Offset Press owners was rejected by TSC, two orders were placed on them for supply of Text Books. Tripura Press Owners Association were given two orders on for supply of books even though TPOA did not submit any tender. SIS to ensure submission of satisfactory comments in respect of IPAI observations in Phase I, II & III study reports. Contd…..

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