According to the response to Right to Information application top audit body of India, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has stayed predominantly latent in the preceding five years. During last five years, the number of reports brought out by CAG has decreased severely. This has given birth to numerous concerns about government’s fiscal responsibility which is not coming under the CAG’s stare very firmly.

The CAG reports pertaining to Union ministries and departments came down from 55 in 2015 to merely 14 in 2020, a drop of almost 75%. According to the RTI reply, in the last few years defense audit reports prepared and tabled in Parliament have also fallen. In 2017, eight reports were tabled in Parliament and in it was totally zero in 2020. Unfortunately, the story of the railway audit reports is also the same. In 2017, five reports were tabled in Parliament and it was only three in 2020.

The CAG of India is the Constitutional Authority in India, founded in 1858 under Article 148 of the Constitution of India. It serves as a watchdog and reveals financial performance and compliance reports of the government of India. The chief duty of the CAG is to audit or inspect the expenditure of public money.As per the CAG’s 2019-2020 performance report, the CAG is the superlative audit institution of India and is anticipated to endorse financial responsibility and cleanness in the affairs of the audited entities.As per the Indian law, the institution’s territory includes scrutinizing the legitimacy, authenticity, regularity, propriety, economy, efficacy and effectiveness of financial management and public administration. It is a huge institution with more than forty thousand employees across India.

The CAG had performed a vital role in unearthing few important incidents of alleged frauds during the United Progressive Alliance government era. Various reports publicized by the CAG on many issues such asBofors deal, the 2G auction, coal block auction, Adarsh housing society and the Commonwealth Games of 2010 damaged the image of DrManmohan Singh and brought down his government.The BJP, then in opposition, extensively utilized these reports to come to power in 2014. However, the radical fall in the number of CAG reports during the Modi government are even more eye-catching. Although the number of CAG reports tabled in parliament was the maximum in ten years in the initial years of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, the numbers have fallen increasingly after that.

Many have raised their voice and exhibited their displeasure towards sharp decline in the CAG reports. Former IAS officer JawaharSircar mentioned the CAG may not have completely fulfilled its main duty and the previous two-three CAGs were mild and have not been very aggressive like VinodRai. He also stated that debatable issues like demonetization and its influence on the Indian economy was not considered for audit by the CAG and that was somewhat strange. Similarly, former LokSabha secretary general PDT Acharya mentioned the CAG has to discover whether money has been expended sensibly and legally. The CAG’s duty is to check all the transactions of the government and test them. The declining trend shows that the CAG has picked up very less number of transactions or the CAG possibly did not find anything incorrect in the accounts.CG Somiah who was the CAG from 1990 to 1996, mentioned in his memoir about how he twisted around the delays in the finalization of audit reports by the institution. He mentioned that when he took over as the eighth CAG of India, many States had a history of late conclusion of the annual accounts and that was cured by the time he demitted office.

A systematic slowdown

In 1949, at the Constituent Assembly when the Constitution of India was being structured, BR Ambedkar, the Chairman of the drafting committee emphasized that he wanted the CAG of India to be a totally independent institution. He was of the opinion that in the Constitution of India the CAG is perhaps the most imperative official and accountable for verification of the outlays supported by Parliament are not surpassed or changed from what has been placed down by Parliament. Ambedkar also mentioned that the institution of the CAG had not been given the similar independence as the judiciary which is very necessary if the official has to discharge his responsibilities promptly.

While traditionally the CAG has thrown light on governance issues and uncovered decisive information linked to corruption scams, lately, the autonomy of the institution has been in question. During few years, a systemic slowdown of the CAG’s audits is evident. As we are in March 2021 significant number of audit reports for the financial year 2018–2019 and for the financial year 2017–2018 are not visible in the public domain.According to the CAG’s performance reports published by the Indian Audit and Accounts Department which offer an outline of the department’s deeds, over hundred audit reports are prepared annually for proposing in the state legislatures. Nonetheless the performance reports do not state which financial year the audit reports were relating to. Thus, these performance reports do not specify the magnitude of delay in the formulation or tabling of reports.

Generally, the last pages of audit reports should carry the dates on which the CAG signed them. However, these dates are not noticeable on digital form of reports.The audit-reports archive should also stipulate the dates on which the reports were distributed to respective state governments. The CAG did not follow this practice in past years and the website of CAG has started mentioning this information October 2018 onwards. Therefore, relevant dates on which the reports were shared with state governments not visible on many reports.

As per the sources, out of 125 audit reports relating to the financial year 2011-2012, for 121 audit reports the date of signing the audit report or submitting the reports in respective governments is available. Not less than sixty of these audit reports were concluded within 12 months and for the remaining the available dates do not denote whether these were finalized within 12 months or not.Out 120 audit reports relating to the financial year 2012-2013, for 116 audit reports the date of signing the audit report or submitting the reports in respective governments is available. Not less than twenty-eight of these audit reports were concluded within 12 months and for the remaining the available dates do not denote whether these were finalized within 12 months or not.Out of 96 audit reports relating to the financial year 2013-2014, for 75 audit reports the date of signing the audit report or submitting the reports in respective governments is available. Seventy two of these audit reports were concluded within 12 months and the remaining three were finalized within 15 months. For the rest the available dates do not denote whether these were finalized within 12 months or not.Out of 118 audit reports relating to the financial year 2014-2015, 94 audit reports were concluded within 12 months and fifteen were finalized within 15 months. The preparation of four reports took 15 to 18 months. For another five audit reports, the date on which the CAG signed them not available, however, the dates of the reports’ submission disclosed that their conclusion did not take more than 18 months after the financial year ended. For the rest the available dates do not denote whether these were finalized within 12 months or not.For the financial year 2015-2016, the CAG website reveals details of 131 audit reports and 97 were finalized within 12 months. 15 were concluded within 12 to 15 months. The preparation of 3 reports took time between 15 to 18 months. For remaining 16 audit reports the dates on which they are prepared and submitted are not available.For the financial 2016-2017, out of 127 audit reports, 59 were concluded within the twelve months. The finalization of 37 audit reports took 12 to 15 months, for 18 reports the time taken was 15 to18 months and for the remaining 13 reports the finalization took 18 to 24 months of time. For the year 2017–2018, not a single report as prepared within 12 months.The preparation of 16 of the reports took 12 to 15 months and 24 were prepared in between 15 and 18 months. It took 18 to 24 months to conclude 40 of the reports and the time for the finalization of 19 audit reports went beyond 24 months.For the year 2018-2019, details of only 32 audit reports are available and none of these were finalized within 12 or 15 months. Twenty-eight audit reports were concluded within a time period of 15 to 18 months and it took between 18 and 24 months for the finalization of four audit reports.

To conclude, it is extremely miserable that the productivity of CAG has greatly fallen over last few years. The availability of numerous reports in the public domain remains incomplete and undecided. What was accomplished by efficient CAGs stands totally upturned. This is a warning that citizens of India now need to keep a watchful eye on the functioning of this watchdog organization.

Article Compiled By-

Shivanand Pandit

Goa