Coir Board, the nodal agency to look after development of coir industries and various government schemes like Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) and Rejuvination, Modernisation and Technology Upgrade scheme (REMOT), has been criticised by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for under-utilising the budgetary grants and presenting false utilisation certificates. Notwithstanding such irregularities, the government has increased the budgetary allocation to the board by 30% from Rs 50.34 crore in 2008-09 to Rs 65.44 crore in 2009-10.
In a report for 2007-08, the government?s official auditor also found that the board used part of funds allocated to it for plan spending for meeting the non-plan expenditure. From financial year 2003-2004 to financial year 2007-2008, the board could not utilise about 8% of plan funds. An amount of Rs 32 crore was used for non-plan expenditure, but was presented under the head ?Plan Expenditure? in the books, the CAG stated in the report on autonomous bodies that was tabled in Parliament on July 24.
The board blamed the government for this irregularity, saying the government did not enhance its non-plan allocation, despite presenting the demand for requirements in a realistic manner, according to the report.
The CAG also found non-disbursal of sanctioned money to the field officers to facilitate formation of coir clusters under SFURTI. Although the board sanctioned Rs 12.08 crore upto March 2008, it disbursed only Rs 5.8 crore and parked the rest in banks. Of the disbursed money, the field officers utilised only Rs 1.27 crore, but the board showed the entire sum as utilised.
The auditor also pulled up the three participating lenders?Canara Bank, Indian Bank and Indian Overseas Bank?for delay in disbursement of loans as per the rules stipulated in the scheme.
It found that the board had transferred Rs 8.8 crore to these banks by March 2008, but the lenders allocated Rs 1.87 crore as of August 2008, just enough to satisfy the demand of 224 units as against out of 650 applications.