Fiscal fitness in limbo as MBMC shying away from revenue audits

In a startling revelation which could blow the lid-off a massive financial irregularities in various civic departments, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has been mysteriously shying away from conducting internal audits of its revenue generating avenues for the past several years.

The matter was brought to light by Ravi Vyas (BJP) who heads MBMC’s standing committee. Demanding a detailed audit report for financial years 2015 to 2018, Vyas in his letter to the civic chief has expressed concerns over the negative impact on the budgetary planning for the current fiscal, due to the lack of accountability on those responsible for revenue generation.

“Proper statistics armed with audit reports is the engine which drives the budget. Moreover, to correct loss areas and to tap new avenues of revenue generation, departments which collect revenue in the form of various taxes have to be accountable,” said Vyas.

"It is true that revenue audit was kept on the back burner, but now work on it has started," said a civic officer.

The MBMC is already under the scanner for ignoring

Hundreds of audit objections remain unsolved for years

audit objections involving public money amounting cores of rupees for the past more than a decade. Non-submission of records on fund utility, violation of rules in spending, excessive pay and pending recoveries in terms of sand royalty from municipal contractors are some of the irregularities pointed out by the auditor.

The internal audit wing is mandated to conduct annual audits to assess the income and expenditure of all departments and seek clarifications on doubtful transactions. Though it is mandatory to provide the necessary information in a specific time frame, majority of these cases stand unattended and continue to appear on the list of audit objections.