PANAJI: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has strongly criticized the Goa Industrial Development Corporation for poor performance and for financial mismanagement with total losses valued at Rs 134.6 crore.
The CAG report has stated that the GIDC does not prepare annual plans for development. Its officials do not set down physical and financial targets for achievement. It suffers from meager data base and that the policy for allotment of plots in industrial estates is inconsistent.
Overall corporate governance is poor at the GIDC, the CAG has said.
Financial mismanagement is on different counts and has resulted in revenue loss over a period of time, viz. five years. The most glaring of these are under-recovery of costs incurred for infrastructure development at the Tuem industrial estate amounting to Rs 3.12 crore, a loss of Rs 20.4 crore on account of non-levy of penalty for non-utilisation of plots identified by the taskforce committee, undercharging of transfer fees, and under-billing in water charges.
The presence of a screening committee and the Allotment Regulations 2012 has not resulted in clarity in allotment of plots, the CAG report has observed. There are inconsistencies in allotment in the new industrial estates of Tuem, Pissurlem and Kakoda.
Furthermore the marking system set for allotment is erratically followed. Other botches are failure to examine the ownership of transferers resulting in unauthorized transfer of plots.
The GIDC also did not develop infrastructure for the allotted plots at Sanguem and Amona industrial estates resulting in non-utilisation of the plots for nine to 11 years, the report said.
The CAG report for the year ended March 31, 2015 covers performance audit of estate management of the GIDC. It is for a period of 2010-15. Some of the financial and operating management is by the previous government but a significant chunk of it is also by the current government.
The CAG section on the GIDC is the largest vis-à-vis its findings on other PSUs. The report coverage runs into 12 pages.
It concludes with the findings that the GIDC lacks systematic planning, sound internal control mechanism and robust management reporting. Therefore there are vacant industrial plots and problem of low revenue generation and non-recovery of costs.
The GIDC in 2013-14 (the accounts were finalized in 2015-16) generated a total profit of only Rs 1 lakh.
For improving performance of the GIDC, CAG auditors have called for immediate safeguard measures in the interests of the corporation. These include application of the rules for allotment, ensuring consistency in evaluation of applications and improved governance through more participation by government nominees in the board.