‘CAG must look at big-ticket audits’
In what lends the situation a delicious sense of irony, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was busy emphasising the need for the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to focus more on “big ticket items on which large sums of public money are expended” on Tuesday, the very same day CAG’s report on the 2G spectrum allocation scam was tabled in Parliament.
It’s a report that has put the government in a tight spot despite the resignation of telecom minister A. Raja who has been indicted in the CAG report. Parliament has remained virtually stalled with the Opposition demanding the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the scam. The PM who was speaking during the 150th anniversary celebrations of CAG had stressed the need to audit the “big ticket audits” as “we might benefit more if the focus of the audit is not so much on minute, individual transactions”. He also told the gathering: “While the benefits of detailed, propriety audit cannot be under-estimated, perhaps, there is a case for allocating limited time and resources in a manner that big and systemic issues get due attention and we get much greater value for money spent”.
The PM also reaffirmed his government’s commitment to strengthening the institution of CAG which he said was also part of “our broader efforts to improve transparency and accountability in the work for our government”. He further said that audit can “contribute significantly to revamping systems and procedures in government”.
The PM also said that the CAG reports are “taken very seriously by the media, by the public, by the government and by our Parliament”. This, he added, casts a “huge responsibility on the institution to ensure that its reports are accurate, balanced and fair”. The PM, however, also had a word of advice for CAG—”As an important watch-dog in our democracy, it falls upon this institution to sift the wheat from the chaff, to distinguish between wrong-doing and genuine errors, to appreciate the context and circumstances of the decision-making process”.
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