NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General is embarking on its third generation audit by introducing outcome based audits very soon. The government’s official auditor first started with compliance audits of various government departments, which it carried on for decades looking into the correctness of expenditure and accounts. Then, in the past few years, it had started conducting performance audits which looked into implementation of a policy and its revenue implications.
In its outcome based audit, the auditor will assess the results of government’s various policies and schemes. In a Performance audit you may not measure the learning outcomes, a top
CAG official said. For instance, an outcome-based audit on primary and secondary school expenditures will look into not only implementation of the scheme but will also assess whether the expenditure in school education has borne the intended results such as the number of students passing with distinctions, or those qualifying for IITs or other such measurable achievements.
“Right now, finding such data is a challenge, but the government can issue instructions to maintain such information in future, or a third party survey can assist in conducting such studies,” the official said. Whether the pollution level in Ganga has come down as a result of the
Namami Ganga programme and if the open defecation has been brought down as a result of the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan- all these can be the subject matters of study in the outcome audits.
Citing another example, the official said, the new audit will look into the success rate of the schemes such as the Ujjwala. So far, the auditor was restricted to conducting compliance audit or performance audit by just looking into the correctness of accounts and evaluating implementation of various policies and schemes of the government. These schemes were never evaluated on outcome results.
“We have conducted some workshop on this subject and are in the process of starting consulting experts and non-governmental organisations,” the official said. The government’s official auditor is fast moving on to the information technology platform and asking all government departments to give access to their data online so that it helps in faster audits with exactness of transactions. Improving the internal audit system is high on the agenda of the CAG that can help it conduct concurrent audits.
The official pointed out that the auditor continues to take up relevant issues for auditing. Currently, it is conducting audits of the government’s implementation of the Goods and Services Tax regime and its GST Network (GSTN). It has also recently concluded the audit of the Rs 59,000 crore Rafael deal with the French government for the supply of 36 Rafale fighter planes in a fly away condition along with weaponry and maintenance contract.
The top government auditor is also not averse to conducting more performance audits like the 2G spectrum allocation and the coal block allocations as these audits have brought the organization more credibility in highlighting the loopholes in government policies and their revenue implications.