Audit report on seven ministries

The report shows how the ministries concerned have made a mockery of basic financial rules. It is not known what they have done with that huge amount of money. It is a big blow to the credibility of the government's financial management which can only engender an apparition that the country might be a 'bottomless basket'. And when such an incredible account of public finance management is reported, the possibility of large scale misappropriation could not be ruled out.

After all, what signal will different ministries, departments, directorates and outlying offices get from such gross violation of rules of financial accountability in the ministries put on the spot? The government and public sector functionaries might begin to feel that budgetary allocations are something that need not be accounted for.

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Unspent money is itself a reflection of incompetence in that the purposes for which it was allocated were not served. Moreover, keeping the government in the dark about it lends itself to an interpretation that the allocation or some of it might have been misspent.

Audit reports that expose big flaws in public finance management were submitted in the past also. But governments hardly ever felt the necessity for follow-up -- let alone take tough action against the errant agencies or individuals. It usually turns a blind eye to the heap of financial anomalies and irregularities.

Financial transparency and discipline are pivotal to effective governance. The government should immediately go for corrective steps to have the ministries account for the unspent money and ensure full compliance with financial rules from now on. It is not an issue that the decision-makers can ignore without exposing the exchequer to huge losses and the national development efforts to peril. We must not also forget that the country's track record in tackling corruption has been very poor. If the government wants to slay the demon of corruption, which has a stranglehold on society as a whole, it has to do some house-cleaning job, so it seems.