CHAPTER- 8: INTERNAL CONTROL FRAME WORK
57 | Page PERFORMANCE AUDIT OF
Natural Disaster in Uttarakhand, June 2013 Response, Relief Restoration of the Damaged Infrastructure of Immediate Nature
CHAPTER- : INTERNAL CONTROL FRAME WORK
8.1 Introduction
Internal controls are safeguards that are put in place by the management of an organisation to provide assurance that its operations are proceeding as planned. These are also designed to
provide reasonable assurance that the entity’s general objectives are being achieved. Existence of or putting in place effective Internal Control Structure to ensure that all activities are proceeding
as planned, assumes importance in dealing with the immediate aftermath of a disaster. Reasonable assurance provided by such internal controls strengthens accountability of public authorities.
As per the Act, the responsibility for carrying out all activities related to disaster management and their monitoring was vested with the SDMA at the State level and with the respective DDMAs at
the district level. Putting in place an effective internal control mechanism to oversee the response, relief and restoration activities is the responsibility of the Disaster Management Department.
There are ive components of Internal Control frame work:- i Control Environment
ii Risk assessment iii Control Activities
iv Information and Communication v Monitoring
The response of the State Government was found lacking in respect of all the ive components.
8.1.1 Control Environment and Risk Assessment
Control environment means the overall attitude, awareness and actions of management regarding the internal control system and its importance in the entity. It is the foundation for the entire
internal control system.
In Uttarakhand, the SDMA is empowered to make plans for the disaster prevention, mitigation and management at the State Level. In doing so, it has to identify the underlying risks and prepare
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CHAPTER- 8: INTERNAL CONTROL FRAME WORK
58 | Page PERFORMANCE AUDIT OF
Natural Disaster in Uttarakhand, June 2013 Response, Relief Restoration of the Damaged Infrastructure of Immediate Nature
strategies and plans to address such risks effectively. This, the SDMA has to achieve through the State Executive Committee. Further, a pre-condition to risk assessment is the establishment of
objectives, linked at different levels and internally consistent. Risk assessment is the identiication and analysis of relevant risks to achievement of the objectives, forming a basis for determining
how the risks should be managed. Following instances highlight the non-existence of a responsive control environment and corresponding risk assessment exercise aimed at addressing disaster
management related concerns:-
i The State Disaster Management Plan, as prescribed under Section 18 of Act, was not in existence at the time of June 2013 disaster;
ii The related policies and guidelines for implementing the SDMP were not formulated in the State;
iii SOPs had also not been developed by the line departments; iv The Act came into effect in 2005. Since then, there were suficient inputs with the State
Government regarding underlying risk analysis for developing the SDMP, for example the report of DMMC, the report on glaciers and the previous audit recommendations. However,
the State Government had not initiated development of a holistic plan to address the risks till June 2013 by providing adequate budgetary provisions for mitigating the disaster impacts.
v Shortage of essential commodities in almost all the test-checked districts was noticed and buffer stock of essential commodities for three months had not been maintained. These
districts did not have adequate storage capacity also.
8.1.2 Control Activities
