‘Chorao-Madel p’yat fails to utilise grants’
BY GERARD D'SOUZA
PANJIM: While many panchayats claim shortage of funds, and others say they can just about manage, the Village Panchayat of Chorao-Madel has in hand a total closing balance of Rs 12.47 lakh.
According to the Audit report for the year 2007-08, the panchayat recorded a total income of Rs 19.76 lakh of which 8.06 lakh came in the form of government grants and the rest in the form of taxes and royalties collected by the panchayat.
However the large amount of money in hand is not necessarily a good sign. A bulk of this finds its source in unutilized funds of the panchayat. The panchayat has not spent a paise on either the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRA) or the Goa Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. This despite the government allotting one-lakh under the SGRA during the year and the panchayat itself having almost 4-lakh carried over from the previous year under the two schemes.
A total of 7.5 lakh has remained in the kitty of these two schemes making up more than half of the closing balance.
The audit report also pointed out various irregularities by the panchayat. The Sarpanch has not certified the paid bills towards stationery etc. So also he has not attested the entries in the cash book. The panchayat has not maintained a separate cash book for the GREGS and SGRY schemes and has instead incorporated the entries in the general cash book.
The panchayat has exceeded its prescribed limit of 25,000 on expenditure purchased stationery by Rs 6,227.
This is not the case of this year itself but ever since 2000-01. Thus the total exceeded expenditure has touched Rs 74,047 which has not been approved. The report suggests that the panchayat obtain approval for this expenditure.
The audit report also found that during the year the panchayat collected Rs 2.75 lakh of taxes which amounts to just 36% percent of the total demand. Of the Rs 4.82 lakh of all (House, professional, light, cycle, cart and dog taxes), yet to be collected Rs 3.56 lakh itself comes from house tax.
Besides this, the last re-assessment of house tax was done in the year 1999-2000 and was valid up to the year 2003.
Reassessment of taxes which was due in the year 2005-06 has not been done till date.
It has also been brought to notice that the panchayat has executed various sundry jobs at the cost of Rs 18,575 and has not kept any record of the same and hence the reasonablity of the payments could not be verified in the audit.
The panchayat also issued 23 construction licences during the year and collected Rs 71,417 all of which has been found in order. However in the case if illegal constructions, another three cases cropped up during the year adding to the existing eight making the number of unsettled cases to 11, none of which were settled during the year.
The audit report ends by suggesting that the Panchayat improve it financial position by making all efforts to recover arrears of taxes and rent amounting to Rs 4.86 lakh along with a 10% penalty.
