₹82 lakh to fight drug abuse gathered dust at Chandigarh social welfare dept: Audit
Aid provided under Centre’s National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction was never utilised by the Chandigarh social welfare department, undermining its purpose
Tasked with spearheading implementation of welfare schemes for vulnerable groups, the Chandigarh social welfare department failed to utilise its resources effectively, according to a report by the principal director of audit, Chandigarh.
Perusal of the department’s records from 2021- 2023 revealed that ₹82 lakh allocated under the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) was not utilised, limiting the scheme’s success.
The department manages various welfare schemes and institutions for Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes, persons with disabilities, women and children, including Nari Niketan and other government and NGO-run institutions.
Launched on August 15, 2020, by the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment, NAPDDR aims to mitigate the adverse effects of drug abuse through education, counselling, de-addiction and rehabilitation, as well as training for service providers in collaboration with central and state governments and NGOs.
Under this scheme, financial aid is provided to state governments/UT administrations. However, despite having ₹82 lakh available as of March 31, 2022, the director of social welfare did not allocate these funds for the scheme’s essential activities, undermining its objectives.
The audit further found that due to irregularities in sanction letters, grantee institutions failed to return unspent funds amounting to ₹2.95 crore that could have been allocated to other welfare schemes, depriving beneficiaries of timely social assistance.
The audit highlighted how utilisation certificates showed large unspent balances that should have been refunded to the director of social welfare, as required by General Financial Rules. The absence of clear refund instructions led to these funds being left idle instead of being used for child and women welfare, reflecting poor planning.
Rule 230 (8) of the General Financial Rules, 2017, mandates that all interest or earnings from grants or advances must be promptly remitted to the Consolidated Fund of India.
Processing of pensions held up
The Chandigarh Administration Pension for Disabled Persons Rules, 1999, provides financial assistance to individuals with 40% or more disability. The Pension to Widow and Destitute Women Rules, 1990, grants pensions to women aged 18-60 who are unable to work. The Old Age Pension Rules, 1990, offer assistance to men over 65 and women over 60. Applications for these pensions should be processed within 30 days. But the audit report revealed that while 3,617 pension applications were received in 2022-23, only 2,794 were processed by March 31, 2023, leaving 823 pending.
Irregular release of ₹55-lakh grant
The audit also observed that on March 11, 2022, the director of social welfare sanctioned ₹55 lakh for the Chandigarh Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CCPCR).
But the funds were instead released directly to another organisation, the Chandigarh Child and Women Development Corporation (CCWDC). This grant was released without deducting TDS and GST TDS, which should have been done before transferring funds to CCPCR.
Additionally, the director did not provide documents showing the ₹55 lakh rent liability that CCPCR owed to CCWDC.
The child rights commission had only submitted utilisation certificates for ₹45 lakh from a previous grant, as they never received the ₹55 lakh sanctioned on March 11, 2022.
Despite being asked to submit a utilisation certificate for the full ₹100 lakh, including the ₹55 lakh that were sent directly to CCWDC, no certificate was requested from the corporation. This led to an irregular release of ₹55 lakh. No response has been provided by the department following the audit’s findings.
During the audit, it was found that ₹1.5 crore were budgeted for each year under the major head for investment in the CCWDC.
However, according to CCWDC’s utilisation certificate and financial statements, ₹1.82 crore were used for revenue expenditure instead of capital investment (shares), in violation of Rule 22 of the General Financial Rules.
When contacted, UT director of social welfare Palika Arora said they were in the process of sorting out the fiscal issues and these will be streamlined soon.
RK Garg, who procured the report under the RTI Act, said the UT administration should work out a mechanism tomonitor response to the audit objections.