Shillong, Jan 6: The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) has allegedly refused to share details of officers responsible for the delay to deposit Rs 32.94 lakh of the Council’s revenue into the treasury, which has led to a temporary misappropriation of funds.

According to the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), the Council’s revenue of Rs 32.94 lakh collected during 2018-19 were deposited in the Council’s treasury after a delay ranging from two to 198 days.

“The delay in deposit of the Council’s revenue was not only in contraventioon of the Fund Rules but retention of the Council’s money also led to temporary misappropriation of the Council’s revenue,” it said.

“Details of officials responsible for delay in remittance of revenue collected, though called for, were not made available to Audit. The Council may take appropriate action to fix responsibility for the delay in depositing Rs 32.94 lakh of the Council’s revenue into the treasury,” the report added.

Rule 18 of District Fund Rules, 1952 of the KHADC stipulates that ‘all moneys received by the Cashier on account of the Council shall be remitted intact to the treasury promptly and shall no account be appropriated towards expendture’.

Contrary to the Rule ibid, cross-verification of the receipt books/registers with the Treasury remittance challans/bank deposit receipts revealed that there were persistent delays in remittance of revenues collected by various departments of the council during the year 2018-19 in respect to No Objection Certificates, Land Record, Application Fee, Renewal Fee, Sale of stamp paper, affidavit etc.

While accepting the audit observation, the Secretary to the Executive Committee, KHADC stated (August 2022) that with effect from April 2022 monthly collections are being credited into the savings bank accounts of the Council within the last working day of the same month in which it occurs.

Meanwhile, the CAG has recommended that the Council may put in place systems to ensure timely remittance of receipts to the treasury to prevent risk of temporary misappropriation of Council funds due to delayed remittance/non deposit of the collected revenue.

Read: CAG calls for cancellation of 82 appointments in KHADC over recruitment policy violations

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