The whopping rise in government arrears indicates the indelible fact - the unnecessary expenditures by the government departments, offices and various agencies. What is more distressing is the fact that these agencies, responsible for making large and unnecessary spending, have apparently failed to clear their arrears in time. It is often the case whenever the government and public agencies spend lavishly on unwanted items and services, they do fail to clear such spending in time, giving rise to the total amount of the government arrears.

The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) has put this year's government arrears at Rs. 664.4 billion, which is about a 100 per cent jump from the previous year's arrears worth Rs. 377.4 billion. The 57th annual report by OAG, which was presented to the President the other day, has stated that there is a rise of Rs. 418 billion in arrears for the last fiscal year as arrears worth only Rs. 7.4 billion was cleared in the previous fiscal year. The report further revealed financial transactions of 5,619 bodies have been audited and arrears worth Rs. 71 billion belonging to 110 federal government agencies and 77 district coordination committees are yet to be cleared while arrears worth Rs. 8.2 billion by 998 state offices is yet to be cleared and local levels across the country have a collective arrears of Rs. 38 billion.

The OAG report reveals that many government departments, government-funded agencies and three-tier governments have been involved itself in creating arrears, an outcome of spending of allocated budget more than they clear sticking to the government regulations. The OAG peruses closely the spending of every government or public agencies and often take them to task should they fail to clear their arrears in time. Many of these agencies are found responsible for making unnecessary spending for which they cannot furnish sound reasoning as many of such spending is carried out by violating the regulations. Of late, there are reports that government departments and agencies are engaged in making excessive spending on buying vehicles more than necessary. Also, there are instances where many government bodies go on huge spending spree just before or during the last month of the fiscal years. Many departments and bodies are found spending budget on purchasing merchandises violating the public procurement procedures and other regulations. All these acts often lead to huge rise in arrears from these bodies. The unnecessary spending, if reports are to be believed, is carried out with an eye on receiving kickbacks or commissions.

It is needless to say that the rising level of government arrears creates pressures on the national economy and gives the government a tough time in balancing its revenues and spending for streamlining the national economy. If a considerable amount of its revenues is sucked up through the lavish spending of the government agencies, one can only imagine how tough it would be for the government to generate more revenues for implementing development programmes. The timely recoup of government arrears thus is highly imperative. The annual Auditor General's report, which has thrown a spotlight on the ever increasing government arrears, is expected to rein in uncontrolled public expenditures which in turn, according to the President, would help complete development goals and realise good governance in the nation.