The Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government on Friday clarified that there was no truth in the reports and the allegations made by Telugu Desam Party legislator and Public Accounts Committee chairman Payyavula Kesav on the allegations of accounting lapses to the extent of Rs 41,000 crore for 2020-21.
State principal secretary (finance) S S Rawat gave a lengthy clarification on the observations made by the Principal Accountant General (Vigilance and Enforcement) in his letter dated May 4, 2021.
The PAG (V&E) has made an observation that 10,806 bills involving an amount of Rs 41,043.08 crore were drawn under Special bill category without adhering to the codal provision, that is, without any details of classification, DDO and beneficiary details sanction proceedings across all treasury units.
He also gave a district-wise breakup of accounting lapses.
On Thursday, Kesav submitted a memorandum to Governor Biswa Bhushan Harichandan requesting that a 'full-fledged audit' of the Andhra Pradesh Finance Department carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in view of accounting lapses.
He sought to know why there were no vouchers, no receipts and no bills of any sort for Rs. 41,043.08 crore worth government expenditure.
“The truth should come out whether these massive accounting lapses were deliberately carried out,” Kesav said.
The principal secretary clarified that it was common that the Principal Accountant General (A&E) compiles the accounts of the State every year.
During the process of compilation observations will be made and referred to the Finance Department for remarks. The observations would be dropped after a satisfactory clarification is issued. This is a standard yearly practice, he said.
He said during 2020-21, the issues have arisen due to operation of adjustment transactions, for the following reasons:
a) Funds released to the PD accounts which could not be utilized by the end of the financial year are lapsed as per the Andhra Pradesh Financial Code.
b) The adjustments made among the PD accounts.
c) Rectification of accounting unit of expenditure within the same Head of Account.
d) Reprocessing of failed payments.
e) Adjustment of TDS recovered from the regular bills to the GSTIN.
Rawat said all the above transactions were carried out as per the procedure and as per the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Treasury & Financial Code.
“We have informed the position to the Principal Accountant General (A&E) accordingly,” he added.
