Reported by Ashok Pradhan in Timesofindia.indiatimes.com on Jul 20, 2012
Info panel asks govt to address urban local bodies 'bunglings' - The Times of India

BHUBANESWAR: Taking serious note of financial irregularities in urban local bodies (ULBs) in the absence of proper monitoring, the Odisha Information Commission (OIC) has asked the state government to set up a mechanism to ensure accountability.

Adjudicating in a Right to Information (RTI) case, state information commissioner (SIC) Jagadananda pointed out discrepancy in information given by the finance department and housing and urban development department and asked the chief secretary "to examine the feasibility of setting up of an appropriate mechanism for effective coordination between the finance department and housing and urban development department for periodic monitoring on the matter..."

The SIC observed that the state exchequer was facing loss of crores of rupees as audit reports were destroyed at the ULB level to save delinquent officers. "Since most of the officers are posted on deputation basis, they also conveniently escape the monitoring radar as soon as they return to their parent department in absence of any monitoring framework by the housing and urban development (H&UD) department," he said.

Jagadananda asked the H&UD secretary to fast track the exercise of creating a dedicated cadre of officials for managing urban affairs and issue appropriate guidelines for maintenance of records at the level of the ULBS on audit reports.

Hearing the complaint by one Radha Krishna Ram, the SIC said government officers are being deputed to ULBs and transferred back even against such delinquency and allowed to go scot free. This situation calls for creation of a distinct cadre of officers for the local bodies.

The commission expressed "utter dismay" that the submission by H&UD department and finance department were contradictory. The submission of public information officer of H&UD department that district collectors are responsible for audit recovery and the department has no role to play in this regard was contrary to observation made by special secretary, finance department, that copies of audit reports were available with H&UD department, the SIC said.

Authorities said the government is working on a separate cadre of officers for ULBs. "Off hand I can't comment on the particulars of this case. But the government has been already working on a separate ULB cadre of professionals, which will take care of the commission's concern," said H&UD secretary Injeti Srinivas.

Complainant Ram had filed two applications seeking information related to ULBs.