Grilling of accounts babus doesn’t yield much info

Hyderabad: Grilling of the accounts officials by Justice Ghose Commission continued on Wednesday, but what the officials revealed is not known. The Commission sought information about loans taken for the Kaleshwaram project, and the procedure adopted for budget approvals and payments.

It is learned that the officers did not reply adequately to the Commission. The officials informed the Commission that the procedure adopted to prepare the audit reports by the government and CAG was different. Hence, the interpretation of the audit reports was also not on the same lines. The officials bypassed questions on the CAG report and instead are said to have given some unconvincing answers to the Commission. The accounts officers admitted that they attended the meetings conducted by the CAG along with the Special Chief Secretary to Finance, Engineer-in-Chief and other top engineers. The accounts wing has executed the decisions taken by the government and they have no role to seek the information on the loans and other financial issues, they reportedly told the Commission.

The Commission recorded the statements of Kaleshwaram Corporation Chief Accounts Officer Appa Rao, Irrigation wing Chief Accounts Officer Padmavathi and Project Works Director Phanibhushan Sharma on the utilisation of funds meant for the project, loan borrowed from the external agencies and the payment of the loans and interests during the BRS regime in the state.

Chief Accounts Officer Appa Rao said that the corporation was formed for the Kaleshwaram project to take loans from financial institutions and to pay contractors. The official explained that paying the loans taken from the financial institution to the contract agency and depositing it as FD in the bank and using the interest earned on it. He also disclosed that the Kaleshwaram project has no source of income of its own and only a small amount of income was generated by supplying water to NTPC and Ramagundam Fertilizer Factory. The loans taken for the Kaleshwaram project were also not shown in the budget outlay.

The accounts officers were also silent and did not disclose the details of the financial burden on the state from the loans taken by the government for the project. The officials replied that it was not under their purview to analyze the debt burden on the state exchequer and they were also incompetent to explain all such important issues raised by the Commission in the open house inquiry.