On July 23, 2026,the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India dropped a bombshell in the Bihar assembly . As of March 31,2025,the state hadn't received 62,632 Utilization Certificates (UCs) worth ₹92,132.75 crore. Finance Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav stressed urgent need for accountability in managing state funds.
The report,dubbed “Financial Reporting Practices,” singled out five departments: Health,Rural Development, Urban Development,Education, and Panchayati Raj as top culprits. CAG warned that missing UCs could mean funds are being misused, urging Bihar to tighten compliance.
Despite talks with Finance Department, CAG said by January 2026,no response came. This silence casts doubt on government's commitment to financial transparency .
In “Budgetary Management,” report said Bihar's 2024-25 budget was ₹3,64,518.87 crore,but only ₹2,87,178.49 crore—78.78%—was used. That left ₹77,340.38 crore unspent . Of that, just ₹10,388.35 crore, or 13.43%, was surrendered,showing a gap between plans and spending.
The report slammed Bihar for unrealistic budgets . Even with a 28.81% budget bump through supplements,spending only topped original plan by 1.48%. Rushed spending? Definitely—39.85% of expenditures happened in last four months of fiscal year.
Worsening mess,Bihar transferred ₹441.29 crore less than required for Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS). Delays in moving central and state funds to Single Nodal Agency (SNA) stretched up to 246 days, straining state finances .
CAG also spotlighted issues with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Bihar . No baseline surveys from 2019 to 2024 meant no sense of local work demand . Plus,6,086 of 13,798 MGNREGA jobs were vacant—80% vacancy for computer operators.
By March 2024,₹36.22 crore sat unadjusted for over five years. The report hit Bihar for not setting rules for State Employment Guarantee Council (SEGC) meetings,which met just thrice from 2021 to 2023—poor oversight.
In water resources,incomplete embankments on Jhim Jamura and Banke rivers left 5.26 lakh people and 17,400 hectares vulnerable. ₹28.97 crore wasted. Education department also wasted ₹8.47 crore from delay in service charge assessments .
Under “Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal Yojna,” CAG found faulty surveys led to bad household coverage data. Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) missed 11.22 lakh homes in 46,633 rural wards,including 8.07 lakh in quality-hit areas. In five divisions,₹2.31 crore was wrongly paid to contractors for work not done. Financial management woes deepen .
Even with these issues,Deputy Chief Minister Yadav claimed “no paucity of funds” in Bihar, showing a stark contrast between official claims and CAG's findings. A big challenge for Bihar as it tries to fix its financial ship .
