OAG Report Shows Worsening of Fiscal Discipline

  1 min 39 sec to read
OAG Report Shows Worsening of Fiscal Discipline

July 17: At a time when the government has claimed to become frugal in public expenses, the latest annual report published by the Office of Auditor General (OAG) has shown worsening of fiscal discipline. According to the 57th OAG Report released on Wednesday, the arrears of the government totaled Rs 418 billion in FY2019/20, an increase of 11 percent compared to the previous fiscal year. OAG audited financial documents of 5,619 government agencies and associated institutions in central, provincial and local levels. The total amount audited was Rs 5,171.64 billion.

According to the report, of the total arrears amount of Rs 132 billion,10 percent belong to government ministries with the highest amount (Rs 19.06 billion) belonging to the Ministry of Finance. Similarly, the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transportation has Rs 14 billion, Ministry of Defense has Rs 9 billion, Ministry of Water Supply has Rs 4.28 billion and Prime Minister’s Office has Rs 4 billion in arrears.

According to OAG, arrears of agencies under the federal government stood at 4.05 percent while it is 4.33 percent for agencies under provincial governments and 5.15 percent for local levels. Of the total arrears, expenses with no submitted documents are the highest with Rs 44.64 billion while expenditures suspected with irregularities have totaled Rs 17.30 billion. Likewise, amounts in mobilization advance and letter of credits (LCs) stood at Rs 21.40 billion and Rs 10.62 billion, respectively.  Auditor General Tanka Mani Sharma said that there has been slight improvement in arrears. According to him, highest arrears have been seen in areas such as public procurement and project management.

No comments yet. Be the first one to comment.