By Kartik Lokhande
A
visit to ‘Koshwahini’ website of Finance Department of Maharashtra
Government exactly at 12.01 AM on April 1, 2015; revealed the financial
indiscipline in the State.
For, the total number of pending bills
between April 1, 2014 and April 1, 2015 in the State stood at a whopping
76,743; and these bills were worth Rs 9469,74,29,898/-. If you thought
that this is shocking, read on. Of these many pending bills, as many as
37,545 were put up on March 31, 2015, that is, the last day of the
financial year 2014-15. And, the worth of these pending bills put up on
March 31, was a whopping Rs 4793,20,51,736/-, slightly less than half of
the amount of total pending bills for the entire financial year.
If
division-wise comparisons are to be made in number of pending bills and
their amount, politically influential Pune Division is the
‘top-notcher’ with 7,312 pending bills worth Rs 1241,19,77,678/- on
March 31. Within Pune Division also, the highest number of pending bills
-- 3,989 worth Rs 810,15,17,157/- -- could be attributed to Pune city
and district alone. This was followed by Mumbai Pay and Accounts Office
with 5,358 pending bills worth Rs 1079,53,91,920/-. These two were
followed by Aurangabad Division with 6,514 pending bills worth Rs
633,65,35,378/-.
As far as Vidarbha region is concerned, the total
number of pending bills as on March 31 was 6,803 in Nagpur Division.
These bills were worth Rs 616,29,31,655/-. In Amravati Division, total
number of pending bills on last day of financial year 2014-15 was 4,335.
The amount of these bills was Rs 246,28,84,863/-.
According to
sources, despite the new Government’s efforts to curb the financial
indiscipline and submission of bills till the last hour of the financial
year, many departments are in the habit of delaying the tender
processes, work orders, and even submission of bills. In some cases, the
grant received for various works to be done in a year was spent
hurriedly only in the month of March, leaving little scope for quality
of work done. In such cases, physical progress was seldom achieved and
emphasis of the implementing agencies was only on ‘utilising’ (spending)
the grant available to the fullest. Especially, this has been the habit
in case of Pune and Aurangabad Divisions. And, this was reflected in
the last day rush of bills, as revealed through data on ‘Koshwahini’
website.
Though the new Government has taken various initiatives
like curbing the practice of submission project proposals after January,
and issuing directions not to spend more than 15 per cent of funds
allocated at the end of financial year; it appears that the road to
financial disciplining of departments will take a long time.
The last day rush
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Division Number of Total amount
pending bills
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Pune 7,312 Rs 1241,19,77,678
Mumbai PAO 5,358 Rs 1079,53,91,920
Aurangabad 6,514 Rs 633,65,35,378
Nagpur 6,803 Rs 616,29,31,655
Nashik 2,626 Rs 502,72,97,925
Konkan 4,597 Rs 473,50,32,317
Amravati 4,335 Rs 246,28,84,863
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Total 37,545 Rs 4793,20,51,736
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(March 31, 2015)
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