Parliament Panel unhappy over submission of reports with ‘unacceptable delays’ of 19 yrs

A parliamentary panel has expressed serious displeasure over the submission of the annual report and audited accounts of the World Bank (WB) aided-Jammu and Kashmir Horticulture Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation Limited (JKHPMC), Srinagar with “unacceptable” delays ranging from 16 years to 19 years.

The JKHPMC was set up in 1978 as a joint venture between the Government of India and the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, with the objective of assisting the local government in development of the Horticulture sector of the UT. It carried US$ 14 million aid.

The recommendations of the committee reflected as how Kashmir-based political parties which ruled the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir for a long did not bother to ensure accountability in the finances of the Corporation while taking the development of Horticulture sector, which is one of the most dominant sector and backbone of Jammu and Kashmir’s economy, casually.

The panel also took the Agriculture ministry into task for “completely failing” to address the difficulties faced by the JKHPMC in laying the requisite documents and also in providing remedial steps, which has resulted in the long delays in laying the documents.

Headed by chairperson Girish Chandra, the parliamentary panel, in its 99th report in respect of the delays in laying the annual reports and audited accounts of the JKHPMC, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), recently tabled in the Lok Sabha suggested that the Ministry “may fix responsibility and issue show cause notice to the erring officials including reprimanding the erring employees so that the delays in laying documents can be avoided”.

“The Committee examined the matter of laying of the Annual Reports and Audited Accounts of the JKHPMC, on a test check basis, for 1997-1998 to 2020-2021. The Committee is shocked to observe that the requisite documents of the JKHPMC, Srinagar for the four years i.e., 1997-1998 to 2000-2001 were laid, together, before the House on February 6, 2018 with delays ranging from 16 years to 19 years,” the report said.

It further said, “In addition, the requisite documents of the JKHPMC, Srinagar for the next ten years, i.e., 2001-2002 to 2010-2011 were also collectively laid before the House on August 3, 2021 with delays ranging from 9 years to 18 years. Further, the requisite documents of the JKHPMC, Srinagar for the last ten years i.e., 2011-2012 onwards have not been laid as yet”.

It took note of this “transgression” from the General Financial Rules, 2017 that was in force and also from the recommendations of this Committee, regarding timely submission of the Annual Report and Audited Accounts of an organization.

“Being critical of the way in which the Corporation has delayed the preparation of the Annual Report and finalization of the Audited Accounts, the Committee, therefore, recommend to the MoA&FW to clear its backlog and lay all the pending requisite documents of the JKHPMC since 2011- 2012 before the House, as per the assurance given during the oral evidence and, also to lay the requisite documents from 2021-2022 onwards within the stipulated time,” it suggested.

“It was observed from its previous Reports that on earlier occasions the JKHPMC did not even use to lay its requisite documents before the Parliament. This Committee, during 1984, recommended to the JKHPMC to lay its requisite documents before the Parliament,” it said, adding that thereafter, although the JKHPMC had started to lay the requisite documents before the Parliament, however, the same were being laid with extensive delays.
“Hence, it is evident that both the Ministry and the JKHPMC did not bother to honour the observations and recommendations made by this Committee in its last two Reports on the documents of the JKHPMC.

From the recurring delays over the years, it is clear that both the Ministry and the Corporation had not made any progress to rectify their errors in this regard. We hence, once again, recommend to the Ministry to form a system and timeline to closely monitor the progress regarding the finalization of the requisite documents of JKHPMPC”.
It warned that this was the final instance when the matter regarding delay in laying the requisite documents of the JKHPMC came before this Committee and, that from 2021-2022 onwards, the requisite documents of JKHPMC, Srinagar would be laid before the Parliament within the stipulated time i.e. December 31.