The Comptroller and Auditor General has flagged major irregularities in the functioning of Odisha’s Integrated Tribal Development Agencies (ITDA), which provides services and public goods for Scheduled Tribes.
The report was tabled in the Odisha Assembly on Wednesday.
The audit highlighted poor spending efficiency and mismanagement. “Out of ₹1,709.47 crore available with the 11 sampled ITDAs during 2018-23, only ₹1,190.44 crore (70 per cent) was spent. None of the ITDAs had prepared Annual Accounts, though required under the Societies Registration Act,” it said.
The report pointed to misuse of funds by junior officials. “JEs/ AEs conducted personal transactions of ₹148.75 crore from ITDA bank accounts, including ATM withdrawals, cheque payments, mobile recharges, UPI transactions and insurance premiums — indicative of suspected misappropriation,” it noted.
It also flagged irregularities in documentation. In nine sampled ITDAs, vouchers worth ₹17.33 crore were available against reported expenditure of ₹20.71 crore, while 325 test-checked works showed ₹3.23 crore payments with missing invoices. Among 2,476 invoices for 544 works, issues included missing dates, missing invoice numbers, duplicates, unregistered entities and mismatched GST details.
Ten ITDAs bought ₹54.25 crore worth of materials from co-operative societies without tenders. At ITDA Paralakhemundi, the PA exceeded approval limits, procuring instruments and costumes worth ₹3.74 crore against a sanctioned ₹73.60 lakh, including ₹2.09 crore via repeat orders without fresh tenders.