An audit body has found that various wings, including the army, navy and the air force of the Defence Ministry, have no realistic and logical budget planning and suggested that the authorities must stop spending more money than allocation.
Finance minister AMA Muhith yesterday tabled the Defence Audit Directorate’s appropriation report for 2010-11, stating that expenditure beyond grants was against financial rules.
According to the Rules of Procedure of parliament, the Public Accounts Committee will now discuss the report. Appropriation reports contain accounts of different ministries and divisions, showing the annual budgetary allocations and the actual spending against the grants from the public exchequer.
In parliamentary practices, the 15-member Public Accounts Committee, comprising MPs from both the treasury and the opposition benches, are authorised to discuss the report and ask clarifications from the ministries asking why they spend more or lesser amounts than the allocations.
Experiences show that discussion on the appropriation accounts at the committee meetings put the ministries under pressure to make realistic budget planning.
But the committees have never been known for regularly discussing the appropriation accounts to ensure financial transparency and accountability.
The Defence Audit Directorate observed: “The Defence Ministry had weaknesses in planning and regulating the annual budget and maintaining records.
“Expending more money than the final [budgetary] allocation and huge volume of unused money demonstrate that the budget estimates are not made realistically and logically.
“And lack of care of the relevant authorities is visible in this regard,” said the audit wing, suggesting that the authorities should be more “realistic” in budget planning.
In 2010-11 fiscal year, the government allocated over Tk10,425 crore for the defence services. But the army, navy, air force and other wings spent over Tk11,048 crore. That accounted for an additional expenditure of over Tk623 crore.
The report shows that an additional amount of Tk110 crore was spent for paying the salary of the employees of the Bangladesh Army while an around Tk61 crore went for their allowances.
Additionally, over Tk70 crore was spent for procuring goods for the Bangladesh Army, according to the report.
Maintenance and repairing cost around Tk80 lakh and over Tk10 lakh was paid for procuring goods for the armed forces.
The authorities spent over Tk6 crore for granting loans and making advanced payments to the employees of the Bangladesh Army, though there was no allocation for the purpose.
The Bangladesh Navy spent an additional amount of over Tk6 crore for allowances.
The Bangladesh Air Force spent an additional amount of over Tk5 crore for procuring supply and services while maintenance and repair cost an extra Tk24 crore. Another additional amount of around Tk31 crore was spent for procuring goods for the Bangladesh Air Force.
The report also said many departments refrained from depositing the unspent Tk5 crore to the public exchequer in 2010-11. Those departments are: The Armed Forces Division, Tk36 lakh, Bangladesh Air Force, over Tk3 crore, the Directorate of Defence Purchase, over Tk47 lahk, the Armed Forces Medical College, around Tk29 lakh, the Directorate of Military Land and Cantonment, around Tk89 lakh, and the Armed Forces Board, around Tk52 lakh.
“Not refunding the unspent funds hampers the implementation of the government’s important policies,” said the report, referring that refund of the unspent funds could have been utilised in other sectors.
“This demonstrates a weakness in financial management,” the report said.