3 months ago
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In an bonzer crook of events, institutions nether the Department of Cooperation person travel successful for crisp disapproval from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for alleged non-cooperation with a Subject Specific Compliance Audit (SSCA).
In a study for the play ended March 2024 tabled successful the Assembly earlier this week, the CAG noted that “all done the people of the SSCA, audit encountered persistent non-production of indispensable records/critical accusation by the audited institutions astatine each levels.”
Conducted from July 2024 to February 2025, the SSCA covered the play from 2019-20 to 2023-24. The SSCA evaluated the regularisation of 16,393 cooperative societies nether the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act and Rules. Apart from the Cooperation department’s bureau astatine the Secretariat, the audit squad had paid visits to the offices of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS), those of the directors of Coir and Dairy Development arsenic good arsenic the territory and taluk-level cooperative institutions successful Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Thrissur, and Kannur districts.
The CAG study says that the audit squad was “denied access” to the dump database of the Integrated Cooperative Database Management System (ICDMS), the online level developed arsenic portion of the department’s modernisation.
Underscoring the value of information successful audit, the CAG observed that the “persistent reluctance of auditee successful providing capable and due grounds successful enactment of compliance to the provisions successful the Act/Rules and successful furnishing effect to audit observations connected deviations noticed, raises concerns connected the department’s transparency and accountability mechanisms, too carrying the hazard of suppression of worldly facts by auditee.”
For instance, of the 345 audit requisitions and enquiries made to offices nether RCS, lone 104 drew responses. In fact, the denial of entree and the department’s nonaccomplishment successful furnishing records resulted successful “limitation of scope” with respect to the verification of audit findings, the study said.
These issues were besides taken up with the Special Secretary and the Chief Secretary successful 2 abstracted letters successful December 2024 and January 2025 and besides successful an ‘exit conference’ conducted arsenic portion of the audit successful July 2025.
The audit found, among different things, delays successful the registration of cooperative societies, Plan money utilisation dropping to 12.47% successful 2023-24 and unrecovered loans successful galore cases. The CAG has recommended that the Cooperation section found a “centralised and inclusive” online level that provides citizens with entree to details of each registered cooperative societies “in the involvement of improving nationalist trust, accountability and accessibility.”
