CAG report says Bihar public sector units in bad shape

A Bihar Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) did not make any profit but contributed Rs 2 crore to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, a CAG report said.

The Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (BUIDCO) did this without following due procedures and in violation of provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, it said.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report for the financial year 2012-13 tabled in the Bihar Legislative Assembly on Tuesday revealed that only 31 out of 71 PSUs in the state were working and accounts of 29 of the working PSUs were in arrears for periods ranging from one to 23 years.

Of them, as per the latest finalised accounts, 15 PSUs earned a profit of Rs 135.74 crore, while 10 PSUs incurred a loss of Rs 1,222.18 crore, the report said.

Out of the remaining - only one submitted its first accounts which only had pre-operating expenses and the rest did not finalise their first accounts, it said.

The CAG report points out that total investment of the state government including capital and long term loans in the PSUs was Rs 8321.8 crore, which included Rs 729.05 crore in the non-working PSUs.

The report says the Bihar State Warehousing Corporation (BSWC) incurred a loss of Rs 12.63 crore due to shortage of foodgrains caused by deficient monitoring of periodical physical verification of the State Warehousing Centres (SWC) run by it.

Accountant General (Audit) for Bihar, P K Singh, said BSWC had a stock of 448 metric tonnes of rice and 269 metric tonnes of wheat lying unused at its Bettiah and Raxaul centres since 2010-11 due to non observance of the First In First Out (FIFO) rule pertaining to storage of food grains.

This led to rice worth Rs 1.42 crore becoming infested by pests, discoloured, heavily broken and non-issuable, he said.

Similarly, the Bihar State Hydroelectric Power Corporation incurred an avoidable expenditure of Rs 1.5 crore due to failure to verify international issues associated with the Dagmara Power Project, while the South Bihar Power Distribution Company incurred a loss to the tune of Rs 1.19 crore due to non-adherence to the provisions of tariff order regarding reduction of contract demand.

Reacting to the CAG report, Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said he would comment on it only after it is reviewed by the Public Accounts Committee of the Bihar Legislative assembly.