The total amount of unresolved irregularities in the government budget totaled Nu. 105.932 in 2006 according to the 2006 annual audit report released on June 8 by the Royal Audit Authority (RAA).
It was a drop of about Nu.15.5 million or about 13 percent compared with the previous year. The dzongkhags had the highest amount of irregularities with Nu. 51.729 million followed by the ministry of labour and human resources with Nu. 15.413 million and the ministry of home and cultural affairs with Nu. 12.744 million.
Of the inspection reports of 16 dzongkhags incorporated in the report Tsirang dzongkhag had the highest irregularities of Nu. 22.480 million, Bumthang Nu. 5.924 million, Dagana Nu. 4.004 million and Sarpang dzongkhag Nu. 3.941 million. Wangduephodrang dzongkhag had the lowest irregularities amounting to Nu. 0.280 million.
Among the gewogs, Chongshing, Khar and Shumar gewogs in Pemagatshel dzongkhag recorded the highest amount of irregularities according to the report. Shumar gewog had the highest irregularities of Nu. 1.298 million followed by Khar with Nu. 1.272 million and Chongshing Nu. 1.199 million.
According to the report irregularities in advances, procurements, constructions, irregular and inadmissible payments still featured as the most significant and prominent issues which required the government’s urgent attention.
Cases highlighted in the report included payments disbursed for activities not carried out, forgery and tampering of documents, payments made for materials not received and misappropriation of cash balance amounting to Nu. 13.559 million as against Nu. 3.715 million reported in 2005.
Among the cases of fraud, corruption and embezzlement the ministry of education topped the list with Nu. 2.755 million followed by agriculture ministry and home and cultural affairs ministry with Nu. 0.631 million and Nu. 0.488 million respectively. Among the dzongkhags, Tsirang had Nu. 4.799 million and Gasa Nu. 0.938 million. Among the gewogs Samar in Haa had Nu. 0.428 million and Shaba gewog in Paro Nu. 0.389 million.
Mismanagement of funds, properties, human resources, revenue and taxes including short and non-collections amounting to Nu. 2.427 million was observed in the ministries of agriculture, finance, health, information and communication, works and human settlement and in the dzongkhags.
Of the total unresolved cases of Nu. 7.593 million due to violation of laws, rules and regulations in the budgetary agencies, violation of procurement norms aggregated to Nu. 6.096 million.
The dzongkhags and gewogs saw the highest amount of Nu. 4.671 followed by the ministry of labour and human resources with Nu. 1.549, agriculture ministry with Nu. 0.596 million and ministry of works and human settlement with Nu. 0.588 million.
Unresolved irregularities in corporations, financial institutions and non-government organizations decreased from Nu. 130.714 million in 2005 to Nu. 80.843 million in 2006. Financial institutions had the highest amounts of unresolved irregularities amounting to Nu. 49.342 million followed by corporations with Nu. 19.846 million and NGOs with Nu. 11.655 million.
This, according to audit report, could be mainly due to improved compliances reported by the agencies after issuing the excerpts of draft annual audit report 2006 to the ministries and agencies concerned.
The report stated that the irregularities occurred due to lack of an effective internal control system.
It stated that the internal audit is confined to ministries only and the present strength of one to three auditors in each ministry is “too restrictive� for the internal auditors to adequately and effectively carry out their functions.
Out of 443 audits planned in 2006, the RAA conducted 444 audits during the year.
The report also pointed out that RAA had recovered a record Nu. 45.651 million as against Nu. 29.771 million in 2005. Source: Kuenselonline
