With a view to making the audit of various government department efficient, the internal audit of various departments of Gujarat government need to be strenghtened, Niranjan Pant, principal accountant general, Gujarat today said.
"In fact, there is a lot of scope for improvement of internal audit in many states in the country. However, the need is much greater as far as Gujarat is concerned", Pant told mediapersons during a conference on Comptroller and Auditor General of India's (CAG) report for the year ended 31 March, 2008 (civil) for Gujarat government. The report was recently tabled in Gujarat assembly.
Informing that audit by CAG is an external audit, he added that improved internal audits of various government departments could help external audit to be more efficien.
"The purpose of CAG's audit is not always to bring about faults and irregularities but to increase efficiency", Pant stated. Couple of state governments have set up a department for internal audit and West Bengal is one of them. "Still, the internal audits of the states require improvment to large extent", he suggested.
It may be mentioned here that CAG's latest report on Gujarat government has pointed out deficiencies in internal control mechanism of Gujarat's transport department. CAG has further suggested to Gujarat government that it shouldenvisage developing and strengthening the internal control system with a view to assuring itself that different areas of operation of transport department achieve its organisational objectives efficiently.
