The government is planning introducing a new Bill in the next session of Parliament to empower the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to audit accounts of the Panchayati Raj institutions, non-government organisations and public-private-partnership entities. ?We expect it (the Bill) to be tabled in the coming (Monsoon) session of Parliament,? CAG of India Vinod Rai said on the sidelines of the 25th Accountants General Conference 2010 on Monday. The CAG will also come under the ambit of the Right to Information Act following the new law, he said.
The new Bill, which will replace the CAG Act, 1971, is being vetted by the law ministry and will go to the Union Cabinet for approval, Rai said. ?We want to prepare a new Act that has the new models of administration, new delivery channels to bring them into the legal mandate,? he said.
?While such access is stipulated in our current mandate, we often face difficulties in enforcing such access in a timely manner. We must have at least the same powers that the citizen has in enforcing his right to information under the RTI Act,? he said.
The 150-year old institution has roughly 50,000 officers and staff, carrying out about 60,000 audits every year. Describing the response of executive on audit findings as ?disconcerting?, Rai said, ?Parliament must prevail for which we need to change the mindset of government functionaries.? ?Another challenge is the lack of adequate and timely action by the Executive on our audit findings. These pertain to those presented to Parliament as well as those reported to the government at various levels, depending on their importance. At times, we do not even get timely and complete responses to our findings, let alone action on our recommendations,? Rai said.
?Our legislative committees?the Public Accounts Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings?at both the Central and State levels, are, understandably, not in a position to examine and take evidence on the entire volume of our audit findings in detail, but the lack of adequate action by the Executive is very disconcerting,? he added. On shifting towards the accrual basis of accounting, he said, ?switching over to accrual accounting will take 5-6 years of preparation. 21 states have accorded their approval to shift to accrual basis of accounting. They are waiting for the government to take leadership.?
Earlier speaking at the seminar, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar also said there is a need to introduce accrual accounting, bringing greater transparency in the accounts with a clearer depiction of assets and liabilities. She said the expansion in the government?s activities has introduced complexities in the funds flows and evaluation, which requires modifications in the way CAG functions.