No delays, CAG prods govt in Monday meeting

New Delhi: In a three-hour meeting on Monday between Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) officials and 28 top officials of 18 ministries and departments, the national auditor has asked for timely submission of records and replies during the field audit and on draft audit findings by the auditees.

According to a senior official who attended the meeting, a senior CAG official, pointing out that audit is a shared constitutional responsibility, asked the ministries and departments to cooperate with “timely and correct replies” as information and data from ministries enable the audit to present the true and fair view of the financial positions of the various government entities to the stakeholders through the parliamentary committees.

It was also suggested that the ministries and departments set up audit committees in their respective ministries at the earliest to examine and conclude audit observations promptly and avoid protracted correspondence that goes on for a long time. The objective of the meeting was to seek the ministries’ cooperation by identifying the schemes, projects and activities that the ministries would like CAG to evaluate and provide audit opinion and assurance on their implementation, outputs and outcome.

The source added that it was pointed out that delay in submission of accounts by the autonomous bodies is also a perennial problem for the national auditor. The meeting is a follow-up of what PM Narendra Modi said during the Audit Diwas on November 16, 2021, when he spoke on the changing role of the CAG as against the traditional ‘CAG vs Government’ scheme of affairs.

The source added that there was a consensus among the participants that a synergetic approach between the auditor and auditee would go a long way to present a “correct, true and fair view” of the financial health of government entities. The ministries and departments that participated in the meeting included foreign affairs, Niti Aayog, health, information and broadcasting etc while the officials included additional secretaries, joint secretaries, chief controllers of accounts and directors.