Local bodies directed to purify their account statements

The State government has directed urban local bodies to carry out data purification of their account statements and to prepare the annual financial statements henceforth using the finance module in the K-SMART application, which is now implemented across all local bodies. The last date of submission of annual financial statements to the Audit department has also been extended for the purpose.

In an order issued earlier this week, it was noted that the majority of the local bodies have not completed the various processes including the identification of all assets and liabilities, valuation of the assets as well as the ensuring of the accuracy of the opening balance sheet based on this information. The Audit department had in its reports in recent years made a note of this issue.

From 2024-25 financial year, the financial transactions in corporations have been taking place through the K-SMART applications, while the rest of the local bodies have adopted it from the beginning of this year. According to the order, the local bodies can improve their credit ratings if they purify the data and prepare their annual financial statements using the financial module of K-SMART, which is an integrated application. The local bodies also have to ensure that all its bank accounts are mapped to K-SMART.