8 Major City Corporations holding Rs 2L Cr Yet to Be Audited, Reveals RTI

The accounts of eight major municipal corporations in the state have not been audited for the past four to seven years. This information was given by the Local Fund Audit Office in response to a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

This office is responsible for checking the financial records of municipal corporations, municipalities, and various local government bodies like district and village panchayats.

RTI applicant Santoshsinh Rathod said that, according to information received in September, audits have not been done for:

• Ahmedabad, Surat, and Vadodara since 2017-18
• Rajkot since 2018-19
• Jamnagar and Bhavnagar since 2019-20
• Gandhinagar and Junagadh since 2020-21

He also added that the state govt’s finance department shared a circular in Dec 2011, stating that the audit of local self-governing institutions, including municipalities, should be conducted under the guidance of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

“According to the information provided by the office of the examiner of local funds, Gandhinagar, the accounts of the eight big municipal corporations have not been audited for between four and seven years.
Considering the size of the budgets of these local bodies, accounts worth Rs 2 lakh crore have not been audited over the years,” Rathod said.