Audit Reports
Civil
Report No. 32 of 2015 - Compliance Audit on Union Territories without Legislatures Union Government, Civil
Overview
There are seven Union Territories (UTs) specified under Part II of the First Schedule to the Constitution of India, viz., Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Lakshadweep, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Puducherry. Except for National Capital Territory of Delhi and Puducherry, the UTs do not have Legislature. Audit observations arising from the audit of the five UTs without Legislature, were being included in the C&AG’s Compliance Audit Report for the Union Government, until 2014. This Audit Report has been prepared as a separate Report in respect of UTs without Legislature for the first time.
The Report contains three chapters. Chapter I gives a brief introduction and a summarised position of the Action Taken Notes furnished by the Ministries to the Audit Reports of the earlier years and status of replies received from the Ministries to the paragrahs included in this Report. Chapters II to III present detailed audit observations.
Some of the important findings included in this Report are given below :Significant audit observations
In the last few years, audit has reported on several significant deficiencies during the audit of the UT departments/organisations. The present report contains compliance audit paragraphs based on such audits. The highlights are given in the following paragraphs.
Financial Management and Internal Control at Port Management Board
The objectives of Port Management Board (PMB) entailed extension of port facilities at the Ports of Andaman & Nicobal Islands (ANI), formulation of rules and regulations towards levy and collection of various charges and for conservancy of harbours. However, the powers required for fulfilling all the objectives were not vested with PMB. No initiative was taken by the Administration for framing periodical rules and regulations necessary for the smooth operation of the activities being executed by PMB. Thus, there were shortcomings in levy and collection of charges for vessel/cargo related services; the workforce for cargo handling was not managed efficiently; there was no policy for augmentation of revenue nor was any policy framed for land management. The absence of proper internal control mechanism further affected the functioning of PMB. PMB accepted majority of the recommendations of Audit. (Paragraph 2.1)