Former CAG pushes for more accountability in government

• While addressing a conference on the digitisation of public expenditure organized by the George Washington University and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation here,
  • Rajiv Mehrishi (Former CAG) raised some issues regarding the Auditing System of India.

Concerns with Auditing System:

• The CAG officials see only the accounts that government departments want them to see.
• If you see the audit reports of CAG, we do not even come up to the insufficient standards of chartered accountants of private companies in the matter of assurance.
• CAG officials were faced with a strange situation where they were under pressure of time and the officers concerned said the “file is lost”.
• The way the accounts are, they are not properly auditable.
• The larger issue was that of the fundamental principle of Parliamentary democracy, that every rupee earned or spent had to be accounted for by the legislature.
• Now, with the kind of data we have, Parliament can draw no assurances that every rupee earned or spent is consistent with what they have approved.
• The solution to the problem was not just digitisation, but business process re-engineering.

Prelims Takeaway:

• CAG
• Parliamentary democracy