Shillong, Jan 11: With the speculations that the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) has ‘misused’ central funds worth crores of rupees meant for implementation of area development as well as health and hygiene of the population to pay salaries of the employees of the Council, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday said that he cannot comment on the internal matters of the GHADC since it is an autonomous body.

Speaking to Hub News, Sangma said, “Whether they use the funds to pay salaries or use the funds for development, that is entirely their responsibility to pay the employees ultimately falls on them…so I don’t have any comments on how they use the funds.”

Pointing the negative outcome, CM said, “But what is important to note is that these funds were meant and are tight funds meant for JJM and meant for different kinds of sanitation and water supply…while they must have looked at the status of the employees, and they must have gone ahead with what they did, the problem in this aspect is that this will affect the entire outflow of the second installment for them”.

“…..so when we are not able to submit the UCs for one installment, then basically it creates a bit of a problem to release the other installments,” added Sangma.

He futher noted that not only will it affect the outflow of the installment in GHADC but it will affect the outflow of the second installment in KHADC and JHADC as the government of India has given all the autonomous bodies a joint fund.

“So, we may see a problem in release of other 15 Finance Commission funds to not just GHADC but to the other District councils, as we will not get the funds from from Delhi.”

“This kind of mismanagement of funds also affects the overall financials of the GHADC and it looks bad on their books. In the future, financial institutions will not be comfortable in giving them the financial support… they will not be able to get that support from the institution so it reflects badly on the management and it’s a bad example of mismanagement and that should be avoided,” Sangma said.

He further stated that the district councils have to manage their own finances so they know better but from a purely the administration point of view, it is not the correct way to move forward.