CAG cites loopholes in management of compensatory afforestation planning body's funds

Dehradun: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has cited many loopholes in the management of compensatory afforestation funds in the forest divisions of Uttarakhand, including their diversion to inadmissible activities and delayed submission of annual plan of operations to the Centre leading to cost escalations in various cases.

The CAG's latest audit report on Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) laid recently in Uttarakhand Assembly during its ongoing budget session said Rs 13.86 crore was diverted at the divisional level to inadmissible activities like state scheme Harela, tiger safari work, renovation of existing buildings, expenses on personage visits, court cases, purchases of I-phones, laptops, fridges, coolers and stationery.

The state authority did not control the diversion or inadmissible expenditure from the State Compensatory Afforestation Fund, it said.

The audit report on the functioning of CAMPA covers a period of 2019-2022.

According to CAMPA rules, commensurate compensatory afforestation is mandatory in case of allocation of forest land for non-forest activities like infrastructural or industrial development.

It points out that in 52 cases 188.62 hectares of forest land was diverted to user agencies for non-forest purposes where in-principle approvals were granted but permission to start work was not granted by the competent authority.

However, the user agencies started the road construction in the forest areas without permission, it said, adding that the forest divisions did not take any cognisance of the unauthorised use of forest land and booked these as cases of forest offence.

According to CAMPA guidelines of 2009, after receipt of money, the state CAMPA shall accomplish the afforestation for which money is deposited in the Compensatory Afforestation Fund within a year or two growing seasons.

However, scrutiny of records in divisions revealed that in 37 cases, compensatory afforestation work was executed after more than eight years of getting final clearance. This resulted in a cost escalation of Rs 11.54 crore in raising compensatory afforestation, the report said.

The implementation of compensatory afforestation activities suffered due to delayed submission of the annual plan of operations to the government of India for approval and defective planning, the audit report said.

There were instances of dysfunctional bottom-up planning and adoption of ad hoc or arbitrary approaches for the inclusion of irregular items in the Annual Plan of Operation (APO).

The release of funds was unrealistic and not commensurate with the approved APO. The state authority failed to ensure equitable and need-based funding of activities in all the implementing agencies.

There was inefficiency in funds release, not adopting of accounting procedure as per Compensatory Afforestation Fund rules, and not discharging of interest liability, the CAG report said.

The CAG has recommended that the state authority must exercise internal control and institute proper budgetary control checks for robust financial management so that misutilisation or diversion of CAMPA funds can be prevented.