Thiruvananthapuram: While the Kerala government frequently blames the Centre for its deep financial crisis, the latest findings from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reveal a startling case of fiscal mismanagement, with the state failing to spend nearly ₹7,250 crore in the 2023-24 fiscal year. The CAG report slams the Finance Department under K.N. Balagopal for “reckless” and “imprudent” methods, including seeking unnecessary additional funds and faulty re-appropriation, which effectively froze funds that could have been used for development and welfare.
Unnecessary and Excessive Grants
The report highlights multiple instances where the Finance Minister sought supplementary grants from the Assembly for projects, only for the funds to remain unutilized.
- “Wholly Unnecessary” Grants: In 16 cases, the government sought additional funds of ₹523 crore but ended up not spending a single rupee from the supplementary grant. In fact, even the original budget allocations for these projects were not fully used. For the National Health Mission, an extra ₹75 crore was sought on top of a ₹913 crore budget, but the final spending was ₹246 crore less than the original allocation, leaving ₹321.14 crore idle.
- “Excessive” Grants: In another 11 cases, the government sought “excessive supplementary grants”. For the Jal Jeevan Mission, which had a budget of ₹500 crore, the government secured an additional ₹1,362 crore. However, the department could only spend ₹1,207.15 crore, leaving ₹655.52 crore unspent.
The total unspent amount across these 27 items was nearly ₹5,280 crore, which the CAG noted could have been used by other departments in need of funds.
Faulty Re-appropriation and a Weak Defence
The CAG also found instances of “thoughtless” re-appropriation, where funds were unnecessarily transferred from one project to another, leaving ₹1,440.69 crore idle under 16 heads. For example, funds were moved from other social security schemes to the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS), but the ICDS ended up spending less than its original budget allocation, meaning the transfer hit other schemes without benefiting the ICDS.
Finance department sources blamed the Centre for delaying borrowing consent, which they claimed caused a liquidity crunch. However, the CAG report dismisses this as a “weak defence,” pointing out that the massive supplementary demands were placed before the Assembly in late February 2024, leaving insufficient time to spend the funds before the fiscal year ended.
