Odisha SIC calls for effective co-ordination between government departments
21 Jul, 2012
The Odisha State Information Commission (SIC) has asked the Chief Secretary to examine the feasibility of setting up of an appropriate mechanism for effective coordination between the finance department and housing and urban development department for periodic monitoring on the matter. Hearing a complaint filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Information Commissioner at the Odisha SIC took note of the discrepancy in information given by the finance department and housing and urban development department.
The Public Information Officer (PIO) of Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department submitted that district collectors are responsible for audit recovery and the department has no role to play in this regard was contrary to observation made by Special Secretary, Finance Department, that copies of audit reports were available with H&UD department. Observing that most of the officers are posted on deputation basis conveniently escape the monitoring radar as soon as they return to their parent department in absence of any monitoring framework by the Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department, Shri Jagadananda asked the H&UD secretary to fast track the exercise of creating a dedicated cadre of officials for managing urban affairs and issue appropriate guidelines for maintenance of records at the level of the ULBS on audit reports.