Hyderabad: For the first time, spending in 24 major departments will be inspected by the Vigilance and Enforcement and Intelligence department ahead of the preparations for the new Budget.
This is giving jitters to secretaries and heads of department.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is learnt to have ordered the internal inquiry, suspecting the misuse of funds in some major departments.
Vigilance and intelligence officers are inspecting Budget books of each department to detect how much money was spent out of the budgetary allocations this year and whether they were spent for the purpose for which they were intended, or were diverted. Officers said the inquiry was unusual.
“Sixteen inquiry teams of officials from V&E and intelligence departments have been formed to inspect budget spending in each department. A special pro forma has been prepared and handed over to these inquiry teams to detect actual spending and diversion of funds,” said official sources in the finance department.
The inspection will be in three stages. In the first stage, priority departments like power, health, education and housing will be scrutinised. In the second stage, irrigation, agriculture and welfare sectors will be covered, followed by inspection of Mis-sion Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya schemes in the third phase. The remaining departments will be taken up in the fourth phase.
“The teams have been told to submit inspection reports to the Chief Minister by the last week of this month. Based on the feedback, the exercise on the new budget will begin in Febr-uary and fund allocation to each departm-ent will be finalised,” sources added.
The role and performance of ministers and department heads are also being assessed.
The prime task assigned to inquiry teams is to detect whether each department is maintaining a proper record of every rupee spent.
