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Audit Reports

Compliance Performance
Tamil Nadu

Report No.7 of 2017 - Economic Sector Government of Tamil Nadu

Date on which Report Tabled:
Mon 09 Jul, 2018
Date of sending the report to Government
Government Type
State
Sector Finance

Overview

This Report contains three chapters.  The first chapter is an introductory chapter outlining the audit scope, mandate and the significant audit findings.  The second chapter contains the performance audit of Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Conservation and Greening Project.  The third chapter contains 11 audit paragraphs based on audit findings from compliance audit.

The audit findings are given below:

Performance Audit of Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Conservation and Greening Project

Forest Department failed to complete the preparatory work of preparation of action plans, surveys, baseline geo coded data. Government failed to utilise State share of ` 87.18 crore towards establishment and parked ` 49.35 crore outside the Government account.  Absence of sanction for removal of invasive species, inadequate supply of turtle excluder device and non-monitoring of climate change indicated ineffective biodiversity conservation.  Selection of plantations without field investigation for tree cultivation and failure to ensure its survival resulted in non-achievement of the green cover to an extent of 19,044 ha.  Absence of adequate manpower, shortcomings in the web based monitoring and internal control impacted the objective of the project.

Medical Services by Animal Husbandry Department

Department did not establish adequate number of Animal Disease Intelligence Units for disease surveillance and implementation of Emergency Mobile Veterinary Service to 27 districts was delayed.  Government could not avail Government of India grant of ` 3.70 crore and an amount of ` 15.53 crore was not utilised for disease prevention.  Absence of periodical upgradation of institutions, delay in adoption of Good Laboratory Practices resulted in ineffective disease diagnosis and control. Acute shortage of qualified veterinarians and absence of adequate infrastructure impacted the delivery of medical service.

Deficiencies in the operation of sand quarries

Public Works Department failed to verify the correctness of the geo co-ordinates available in the mining plan or Environmental Clearance at the time of approval of the mining plan during approval. The Department failed to comply with the instructions of Government regarding judicious use of the poclains and to ensure removal of sand in the approved area of quarry resulting in removal of additional quantity of sand as observed from UAV technology and loss of revenue of ` 21.02 crore. Major deficiencies in issue of transport permits and sale slips, non-ensuring authenticity of vehicles and end users, deficient supervision, absence of monitoring hampered the achievement of envisaged objectives. 

Information Technology Audit on Agri Reporting System

Development of Agri Reporting System software was finalised without adopting the User Requirement Specification, System Requirement Specification and User Acceptance Testing. A comparison of the data available in the application and with the manual records indicated incorrect and incomplete data capturing.  The application lacked adequate input controls, validation checks and process controls resulting in reports generated becoming unreliable and continued dependence on manual records.

Audit of transactions of various Departments of Government and field offices revealed, avoidable expenditure, additional burden and non-realisation of Government dues as summarised below:

  • Failure to renew the lease period, non-enhancement of lease rent resulted in short collection of lease rent of ` 3.29 crore besides non-eviction of encroachment from Government land.
  • Incorrect preparation of estimates by suppressing the Benkelman Beam Deflection test results and incorrect inclusion of seasonal variation factor, in violation to Indian Road Congress specifications, resulted in additional work and avoidable extra expenditure of ` 8.75 crore.
  • Lack of monitoring the progress of work and delayed furnishing of Utilisation Certificates by State Government for development of tourism infrastructure resulted in non-availing of Government of India grant of ` 17.40 crore.

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