Union comptroller and auditor general (CAG) Vinod Rai on Wednesday pressed Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on four amendments to the existing powers of his office.
These recommendations, to strengthen the CAG’s office, were first made to the government in 2009. Rai reiterated on Wednesday, at a function to mark the 150th anniversary of the institution of an independent audit office in the Government of India, with Mukherjee present, the need for these changes.
According to senior officials in the CAG, the audit agency has asked the government to make a legal provision of a time period within which any office being audited would be required to give a response to a query. Officials in the CAG said they want an “RTI-like provision” (meaning, something on the lines of the enactment in the national Right to Information Act) to ensure “penalty, either monetary or otherwise” if there was a delay in doing so. Officials complained that non-submission of records was the most common route through which audit was being delayed.
Second, the CAG’s office has requested the government to allow it to extend its mandate to audit the accounts of private companies involved in public-private-partnership (PPP) projects. The CAG wants to audit accounts of private companies to the extent of their involvement in the PPP, not the complete accounts of these private companies.
Earlier, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had opposed a proposal to bring PPP under CAG scrutiny. Third, the CAG has asked for changes to allow it to audit new government-funded schemes such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, National Rural Health Mission, etc. At present, the CAG is finding it difficult to do a complete financial audit, as it does not have the powers to audit bank accounts of non-government organisations and the like, to which government money is directly transferredto fund social welfare schemes.
In 2009, the Planning Commission had also noted that more than half of central plan funds were falling outside the mandate of the CAG.
Last, the CAG wants a specified time period to be certified by the finance ministry within which any of its audit reports would be tabled in Parliament. Presently, there is none.
