Chandigarh admn failed to procure utilisation certificates for

The principal director of audit (central) has pointed out that the UT finance department failed to procure utilisation certificates (UCs) amounting to nearly ₹458 crore from the grantee departments for financial years 2021-22 and 2022-23.
A UC is a document used to certify that a particular loan or grant has been utilised for its intended purpose. Essentially, it ensures that the funds provided by a lender or donor have not been misused.
The audit team conducted an inspection of the office of the UT finance secretary for the year 2022-23. The office has also been functioning as the administrative head officer of various departments such as vigilance, transport, police, housing, industries, health etc, and issues grants-in-aid (recurring as well as non-recurring) to various autonomous bodies like Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana; municipal corporation (MC), Chandigarh; Right to Service Commission (RSC), Chandigarh, etc.
During the survey of the accounts concerning grants-in-aid released by the UT administration to MC and PAU for the period starting from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, it was noticed that UCs amounting to ₹175.76 crore were awaited from the grantee departments even after the fiscal’s closure.
According to the inspection report, a grant-in-aid of ₹550 crore was released to the MC, but UCs amounting to ₹ 175.56 crore were awaited. Similarly, a grant-in-aid of ₹ 20 lakh was released to PAU and UCs for the same were awaited.
Upon being notified, the department stated that a reply would be submitted in due course upon receipt of replies from the concerned branches.
Similarly, during the scrutiny of records for 2021-22, it was noticed that UCs amounting to ₹282.20 crore were awaited from the grantee departments even after two months of utilising grants.
Furthermore, in violation of norms, the UT administration granted sanctions to the grantees without obtaining UCs from 2018 to 2021.
As per the report, the department awaited UCs amounting to ₹2 crore for 2021-22 from Swachh Bharat Mission (MC), whereas UCs amounting to ₹2.86 crore were pending for 2018-21.
Additionally, UCs amounting to ₹280 crore were awaited from MC for 2021-22, whereas UCs worth ₹112 crore were awaited for 2018-21. Similarly, UCs amounting to ₹20 lakh were awaited from PAU for 2021-22.
Upon being notified during the audit, the department sent the observation to the concerned departments from whom the UCs were awaited.
According to rules, any portion of grant that remains unspent or unutilised should be surrendered to the administration.
During the record check, it was noticed that an amount of ₹56.18 crore was issued as a grant-in-aid under the Smart City project, out of which ₹3.69 crore remained unspent as of March 31, 2023, but the unutilised amount was not surrendered.
Furthermore, it was observed that quarterly grants had been issued to various organisations, including RSC, MC, RERA, PAU, and Smart City by the finance department, but the required achievement-cum-performance reports had neither been furnished by the grantee institutions to the finance department nor insisted upon by the department to be submitted timely.