Utilization Certificates of Grants and Funds
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and
Accountant General (AG) offices of State Governments; are entrusted to verify
and audit the works of Government keeping in view the proper utilization of
financial resources. The Government organizations are allotted budget on the
basis of their proposals from time to time; on various projects and programmes.
After utilizing the budget, the organizations required to submit Utilization
Certificates of the allocated budget which comprises the amount sanctioned,
amount utilized, and work or functions performed with the amount spent, also
the balance unutilized amount (if any).
Audit of Organizations failed to submit Utilization Certificates (UCs):
The organizations which failed to submit Utilization
Certificates (UCs) are taken very seriously by the Government. The special
audit of such organizations is done by the Accountant General (AG) Auditors
from time to time.
Why Grants are provided by Government?
The grants are provided after taking a serious view
upon the demand of the organizations keeping in view, their primary functions,
policies, programmes of Government and their actual requirements to spend money
upon the activities. The grants are provided for specific purposes and required
to be spent upon the same. In case, the money provided through grants is
utilized for other functions, the utilization certificates be difficult to
produce by the government organizations. The transfer of grant from one head to
another cannot be done arbitrarily. The sanction of competent authorities is
must for such cases.
Financial and Administrative Irregularities
The pending Utilization Certificates are most of the
times, symptoms of financial and administrative irregularities in the
organizations. The impression of the organizations become negative and such
organizations also try to keep the information secret by not providing the
replies of RTI queries in their offices. The inefficiencies in financial and
administrative functions started to grow and ultimately, the organizations seem
to be non-functional as per their mandate, vision, goals etc.
Training is the ultimate solution
The organizations with pending utilization certificates require training from Administrative Training Institutions (ATIs) like Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) in Haryana where financial and administrative skills are sharpen to minimize the inefficiencies, irregularities and the organizations start functions to attain their ultimate goals.
