KATHMANDU, May 15: The government’s arrears jumped to Rs 733.19 billion with additional mismatch expenditure worth Rs 91.59 billion made by the government in the fiscal year 2023/24.
The 62nd annual report of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) shows that the arrears increased by 1.54 percent from Rs 641.60 billion in the last fiscal year, mainly due to increasing financial irregularities at the level of federal government, sub-national governments and offices related to public service delivery. The OAG submitted the report to President Ram Chandra Paudel on Wednesday.
According to the OAG report, the constitutional body audited a total of 5,769 institutions, covering financial transactions worth Rs 9.462 trillion. The identified arrear amounts make 0.968 percent of the total audited amount.
Any financial transaction carried out without providing the required documents and fulfilling the processes is listed under arrears. A large amount of arrears hints at higher possibilities of corruption in the government bodies concerned.
Curb Soaring Arrears Now
The OAG has classified the arrears into three types: the ones which must be recovered, those which must be regularized, and advances. The first category includes the amount misappropriated, losses and the amount left to be recovered.
Likewise, the arrears to be regularized involve inadequate documents and processes, failing to delegate authorities and non-reimbursed amounts. The advance category includes the amount taken in advance by civil servants and expenses for mobilization.
The OAG report shows out of a total of Rs 3.161 trillion audited across 3,093 federal government offices, irregularities amounting to Rs 47.74 billion were recorded. At the provincial level, the OAG carried out audits for 1,165 offices amounting to Rs 308.56 billion, of which Rs 4.20 billion was traced under irregularities.
The audit of this year's 753 local levels along with eight unassessed financial records of previous years, worth Rs 1.118 trillion, reveals discrepancy of Rs 25.3 billion. Regarding the working committees and other institutions, the authority audited 695 entities with financial turnovers of Rs 522.13 billion, out of which irregularities amounting Rs 14.33 billion were found.
The government is left to take reimbursement of grants worth Rs 6.25 billion from donor countries, while more than Rs 63.70 billion is left to be recovered under the heading of foreign loans. The OAG said financial transactions worth Rs 8.71 billion of foreign loans and grants are yet to be assessed.
Finance Ministry increases arrears by Rs 33.71 billion, the largest of all
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) was found to have conducted the largest amount of the non-transparent transactions in fiscal year 2023/24.
According to the OAG report, the arrears of the MoF were recorded at Rs 33.71 billion in the review period. The amount made up 70.61 percent of the total arrears of the government ministries. With the arrears amounting at Rs 6.43 billion, the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport stood second.
