the goan I network
PANAJI
Well past more than three years since its inception as a special purpose vehicle to implement the capital’s ‘smart city’ project and releasing nearly Rs 200 crores to the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL), the State government has belatedly notified the protocol for allocating funds to it through its Urban Development ministry.
According to the new “pattern of assistance”, funds will be devolved to IPSCDL in the form of annual grant-in-aid on a 50:50 Centre-State funding principle only after the funds from the Centre are received both for the Smart City Mission (SCM) and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).
Unutilized funds, are to be returned in cash to the government treasury by IPSCDL, without which it will not receive any additional or subsequent grants. “Equipment and other assets created with the grant-in-aid funding either partly or wholly, will vest in the State government,” says the notification issued by Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) Dr Tariq Thomas.
Thomas who also doubles up as ex-officio Joint Secretary to the State government also lists out in the notification the condition that IPSCDL must maintain a register in Form GFR 19 of the permanent and semi-permanent assets it acquires utilising the government grants.
Although incorporated as a company under the Companies Act, 2013, IPSCDL has been mandated to appoint its own Chartered Accountant but its accounts will be subject to a concurrent audit by the statutory auditor of the State government: Senior Deputy Accountant General, Panaji.
The financial protocol also requires IPSCDL to maintain the accounts of the grants separately from its other normal activities and submit the audited statement of accounts to the State government within six months of the close of the financial year.
The protocol however does not specify accounting procedures for grants already devolved to the controversial corporation in the past which amount to almost Rs 200 crores.
