Jammu, April 28: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India today said there were 56 autonomous bodies in J&K and Ladakh that had failed to submit their accounts for audit, many of them for decades. The CAG, in a report, said that delay in submission of the accounts entailed the “possibility of a fraud”. It said the bodies had been asked to submit the accounts time and again for annual audit. A total of 811 annual accounts were awaited from these autonomous bodies as on October 2019.

The Jammu Development Authority (JDA) figures on the top of these autonomous bodies to be audited under Section 14 of the CAG’s (DPC) Act, 1971. The JDA’s accounts are awaited for past 46 years from 1972-73 to 2018-19, the report said. This organisation is followed by the Srinagar Municipal Corporation, whose accounts are pending for submission for 31 years from 1988-89 to 2018-19.

While audit accounts of the Pollution Control Board are pending for 24 years from 1996-96 to 2018-19, the same of the Srinagar Development Authority, the Jammu Urban Development Agency and the Tourism Development Authority, Gulmarg, have pending for 20, 20 and 19 years, respectively, it said.

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The autonomous bodies come under the purview of the Comptroller and Auditor General and are required to submit their accounts before June 30 every year.

The report said the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh, had failed to submit accounts since its inception in 1995-96. The SKUAST Universities of Kashmir and Jammu, EPF Board (Srinagar), KVIB, BOCWWB and the SLSA had not submitted accounts for period ranging from one to nine years, the report said.

It further noted that the same is the position in respect of LAHDC, Kargil, which came into existence in 2004-05 and the accounts are in arrears since its inception.

The CAG report said in respect of 10 autonomous bodies, which were to render annual accounts to audit body, 84 accounts were not rendered for the period ranging between one to 24 years.