It is our firm belief that our mandate is not merely to prepare reports and place them in the legislature. The constitutional mandate places a larger responsibility on us-holding the government financially accountable to the legislature. It enjoins upon us to keep the ultimate stakeholder, namely the man on the street, apprised of the outcomes of government spending, and not merely conduct expenditure audits. Thus, to sensitise public opinion, we have taken steps to disseminate audit findings to citizen groups, non-governmental bodies, educational institutions and the media.
It is with this objective in mind that we have devised what are commonly referred to us as 'Noddy Books', which provide a snapshot of our salient audit findings and recommendations. These 'Noddy Books' also prominently display good practices adopted by implementing agencies, and provide a channel for the dissemination of these practices to other institutions implementing such projects. We believe that such an initiative-sensitise interested stakeholders-has served as a force-multiplier for us and helps to promote accountability and good governance.
As an institution that performs oversight functions, we are conscious that we keep upgrading ourselves and that our systems and methodologies remain robust and foolproof. Hence, we had requested the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of other countries to do a peer review of our organisation. The Australian auditor general acceded to our request and put together an international team, comprising members drawn from the SAIs of Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and the US, to do an in-depth peer review of the procedures and practices of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. Our endeavour is to keep aligning our processes and work practices with the best in the world to be an effective institution for enforcing accountability in the system of governance.
Worldwide, governments have empowered SAIs in response to the changing models of governance and the rising demands of citizens for greater transparency and accountability. Mandates of several national auditing offices have been broadened to secure not only the legality and probity of government spending, but also its efficiency and effectiveness. In the UK, the CAG was formally appointed an Officer of the House in 1983 and was given the powers to report to Parliament, at his own discretion, on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which government bodies used public funds.
A symbolic demonstration of how public audit has evolved to bring into focus its accountability role is the repositioning of the SAI of the US. The erstwhile 'General Accounting Office' was redesignated as the 'Government Accountability Office' (GAO). In July 2004 in the US, several proposals were introduced in the 110th Congress to augment the mandate of the external auditor. Explaining the metamorphosis in the institution, David Walker, the former Comptroller General wrote, "In fairness, GAO did primarily scrutinise government vouchers and receipts in its early years. The days of accountants in green eyeshades, however, are long gone. Although GAO does serve as the lead auditor of the US government's consolidated financial statements, financial audits are only about 15 per cent of GAO's current workload. Most of the agency's work involves programme evaluations, policy analyses, and legal opinions and decisions on a broad range of government programs and activities both at home and abroad. The scope of GAO's work today includes virtually everything the the federal government is doing or thinking about doing anywhere in the world."
In Canada, the Parliament passed the Federal Accountability Act in December 2006 to amend the Auditor General Act to give the Auditor General authority to conduct performance audits.
The Australian National Audit Office in its centenary celebration published a book, From Accounting to Accountability, to record the change over the last century from an emphasis largely on compliance to one based on value for money and accountability for performance.
As I conclude, I stand before you today to remind you that we are poised at that juncture in Indian history where the pledge of the framers of our Constitution places a huge challenge before us. The challenge is that we were entrusted with the blessing of democracy that brought with it an opportunity to practice and succeed in self governance.
Today, we need to remind ourselves that democracy is an experiment in governance, which succeeds or fails on its own merit; on the merit of the people who need to actively engage in nation building; on the merit of those in whom, we place that fiduciary trust to control public moneys and thereby our welfare itself; and on the merit of the institutions that we create to ensure that indeed all actions and programmes of government are architectured for the good of the people.
I stand before you to remind you that there is really no Bharat or India. We are one homogenous whole. We the people, along with our geographical boundaries, constitute the nation and we, the people, have given unto ourselves a government or the state. This responsibility enjoins upon us to ensure that the state works for our benefit, that the nation can never be subjected to the state and, our institutions are strengthened to ensure that those in whom we place the trust to administer on our behalf indeed do, so placing our welfare as paramount.
I stand before you to remind you that ultimately, it is we the people, whom posterity will hold accountable if today, we do not ensure that we bequeath the GenNext, an India richer, in all respects, than what we inherited.
Edited excerpts from Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai's speech at the India Today Conclave on March 15 in New Delhi
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