4 min readKolkataJun 22, 2026 02:15 PM IST
First published on: Jun 22, 2026 at 07:30 AM IST
Already facing charges of widespread corruption during its 15 years in power in West Bengal, more trouble possibly awaits the Trinamool Congress (TMC) as the new BJP government is likely to table reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) from the last four years during the ongoing Budget session in the state Assembly.
The last CAG report tabled in the Assembly by the previous TMC government was for the 2020-21 financial year. Since then, the TMC government did not table the auditor’s reports for the 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 financial years despite the directions of then Governor C V Ananda Bose.
“The CAG reports always flagged corrupt practices of the TMC government. Naturally, the state government was not happy with the CAG reports and did not want them to be published,” said a senior state Finance Department official, adding that unless the auditor’s reports are tabled in the Assembly, they are not available in the public domain.
While the Suvendu Adhikari government will present the Budget for the current financial year on Monday, it is not clear when the CAG reports will be released. The current Assembly session will continue until June 25, and will resume on July 6 after a brief recess.
Where did the money go?
The CAG has flagged that from 2011 to 2020 the West Bengal government did not submit utilisation certificates (UCs) amounting to Rs 2.29 lakh crore of Central grants. The UCs are documents submitted by the beneficiaries of grants, or welfare schemes and projects, endorsing the receipt and proper utilisation of funds. As per the state government’s rules, UCs have to be collected from grantees within a year of disbursal of grants by officers of the department through which the funds had been disbursed.
“It is assumed that UCs are not submitted if the funds have not been utilised properly and have been misappropriated,” said an official.
The 2020-21 CAG report stated that the state Panchayat and Rural Development Department had the maximum pendency of UCs (81,950 UCs, amounting to Rs 81,839 crore), followed by the School Education Department (38,117 UCs for Rs 36,850 crore), and the Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Department (34,837 UCs for Rs 30,693 crore).
“In the absence of UCs, it could not be ascertained whether the recipients had utilised the grants for the purposes for which these were given. This assumes greater importance as pendency in non-submission of UCs is fraught with the risk of misappropriation,” the report stated, adding that despite successive audit reports flagging the issue of non-submission of UCs, the TMC government remained unaffected.
Bills not submitted
In that last tabled report, the CAG also flagged the “non-submission of detailed contingent (DC) bills” years after funds were withdrawn from the state exchequer through abstract contingent (AC) bills.
Money is drawn from the exchequer through AC bills in case of contingencies such as floods, erosion, droughts, and other natural disasters, or to provide relief and meet other contingency expenses for events and happenings that are unforeseen. The state government’s rules stipulate that DC bills with clearer and verifiable details of the funds withdrawn through AC bills have to be submitted within a maximum period of 60 days of the withdrawal of funds.
The report stated that as of March 2021, 11,321 DC bills totalling Rs 3,400 crore had not been submitted. “Pending DC bills reflect accounting indiscipline by government functionaries and controlling authorities, leading to risk of fraud, temporary misappropriation and embezzlement of funds,” the auditor said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. (File Photo) 
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