Patna, July 21: After a brief lull, the ghost of non-submission of detailed contingency (DC) bills has returned to haunt the Nitish Kumar government.

A day after the comptroller and auditor-general (CAG) report for March 2011 was tabled in the Assembly, Preman Dinaraj, principal accountant-general (audit) Bihar and IDS Dhariwal, accountant-general (accounts and entitlement) told repor-ters today the government is yet to present DC bills for expenditure running in crores.

The CAG, in its March 2010 report, had showed DC bills of around Rs 18,000 crore pending for the past eight years (till the end of March 2010).

“Out of Rs 18,000-crore DC bills, the state government has submitted the bills of around Rs 14,000 crore. Of this, we have scrutinised bills worth Rs 11,000 crore in which a meagre amount of Rs 64 crore could be settled,” Dhariwal said.

The drawing and disbursing officers of the state are authorised to draw money through abstract contingency (AC) bills to meet the expenditure not incorporated in the budget. The officers are required to present DC bills (along with original vouchers) to the AG (accounts and entitlement) within six mon-ths of withdrawal of funds.

Asked whether the bills were fake (as bills worth Rs 10,936 crore after deducting Rs 64 crore could not be settled), Dhariwal said: “I can’t say whether these bills are fake or not. It’s up to you (reporters) to understand. All I can say that these bills are incomplete in the sense that they are neither submitted in proper format, nor signed by appropriate authority.”