Guwahati, March 15: An audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has revealed that the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) incurred excess expenditure of Rs 1.47 crore in procurement of biscuits as a morning snack for children of Anganwadi centres in 2013.

The scrutiny of records by the CAG during the audit revealed that the BTC authority violated procurement norms that resulted in excess expenditure of government money.

According to the CAG report of 2016, the joint secretary of BTC's social welfare department released Rs 3.45 crore for procurement of 4,31,71,300 pieces of Britannia Marie Gold biscuits at 80 paisa per piece from 37 NGOs/self-help groups in October 2013. Independent market survey during the audit in September 2015 revealed that the prevailing MRP of a 300gm packet of Britannia Marie Gold biscuit was Rs 27 and it contained a maximum of 57 biscuits.

Further, invoices collected from a local Britannia distributor issued during the period (August 2013) revealed that the MRP of a 300gm packet of biscuit of the same brand ranged between Rs 25 and 26. The price of each biscuit thus, worked out to be 46 paise. Thus, there was an excess expenditure by the department in procuring biscuits from NGOs/SHGs if compared to the prevailing market price.

Under the supplementary nutrition programme during 2012-13, the Assam government had sanctioned Rs 4.44 crore to BTC principal secretary for providing morning snacks to pre-school children aged between three and six years. The funds were meant for 6,719 Anganwadi and 175 mini Anganwadi centres.

On being pointed out during the audit, the BTC administration in July 2016 stated that in order to avoid contamination, single use portable packets meant for distribution were considered. It said the biscuits were supplied in cartons containing 24 packets, each packet of 200gm containing 26 biscuits at Rs 20 (MRP). The issue rate per piece of biscuit was thus 80 paise, including the transportation cost.

The reply was not accepted by the CAG as no document in support of the claim was produced. Further, all the delivery challans and bills of suppliers mentioned that biscuits were supplied at 80 paise per piece and not the packets. Moreover, according to approval of the purchase committee, the biscuits were to be procured at MRP, inclusive of transportation cost. "Thus, due to non-adherence of instruction of the purchase committee, the BTC had to incur an excess expenditure of Rs 1.47 crore," the audit report stated.