NEW DELHI: Raising issues of demonetisation, GST (Goods and Services Tax) and defence purchases, public accounts committee (PAC) chairman and senior Congress leader
Mallikarjun Kharge told the Comptroller and Auditor General to make the government accountable, particularly when it is “shifting goalposts” once failures become apparent.
Speaking at the two-day Auditors General conference here on Wednesday, inaugurated by President
Ram Nath Kovind, Kharge said the government should be forced to spell out the outcomes when it launches its schemes. “CAG is embarking on a third generation audit by introducing outcome based audit. It is time that the government is made accountable for the outcome of its schemes,” he said, making specific reference to demonetisation, GST and huge expenditure on defence purchases.
Kharge’s remarks on demonetisation and defence purchases have come at a time when the Congress has been critical on both the issues and had been demanding a CBI probe in the Rs 59,000 crore Rafael fighter jets purchase with France. The CAG is currently reviewing the 2016 Rafael deal for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter planes in fly away condition along with weaponry and maintenance contract.
CAG Rajiv Mehrishi said the federal auditor is “constantly reviewing its system and approaches to improve audit effectiveness in the new and changing paradigms of governance.”
“The available IT tolls provides opportunities of conducting 100% audit of government expenditure provided all transactions are available in digital format. He said CAG has lived up to the expectations of the founding fathers of the Constitution which had accorded as much independence to the federal auditor as to the judiciary.
Kharge also reminded the CAG that its report should not be based on “presumptions or assumptions casting aspersions on other public servants. A populist report that seeks to build reputation of one institution by undermining public’s faith in another would serve neither.”
The PAC chairman’s observation did not go down well with many senior CAG officials who, on condition of anonymity, said that the PAC chairman should have refrained from using the CAG platform to raise such political statements. The CAG performance audits on telecom and coal blocks allocations had led to the multi-agency probe in 2G scam and coal blocks.
“The relationship between the PAC and the CAG is complimentary to secure the accountability of the executive in the field of financial administration,” pointed out Deputy CAG Ashwini Attri in his vote of thanks address.
CAG is working on presenting digital reports. “Artificial intelligence, robotics and block chain will be automating many traditional core accounting tasks,” he said.