Evolution of on-line non-intrusive e-Audit - President's advice to CAG

By Vijay Kumar

Addressing the Audit Advisory Board, President Kalam said,

1. The audit teams can work with Programme Chiefs or Executives of national programmes or projects from the inception of the project and participate in the evolution of the PERT of the Project. You will find that there may be ten to fifteen critical paths for a ten year programme and for five year projects it may be more. The Critical paths in the project PERT will be the CAGs Audit area and points.

2. The aim of the audit should be to detect the deviations in near real time when the project is in progress and provide constructive solutions so that the objective of the project is met well in time.

3. CAG may consider incorporating a mutually agreed online audit system for high value schemes of national importance such as rural employment scheme, golden quadrilateral, large power plants so that maximum value for money is realized in a time bound manner.

4. Audit should be sensitive to the fact that E-commerce and a borderless world (Internet) would soon be a reality. You have to evolve a policy statement for e-Audit based on the e-Commerce and e-Governance standards.

5. e-Audit is essential to be proactive enabler of missions facilitating the programme or project outcome as envisaged.

6. Forecasting of challenges for effective fiscal utilization and providing useful inputs for maintaining the momentum of the project should also become a part of the audit.

7. Reengineering systems and procedures to avoid mistakes. Audit can provide do's and don'ts to the executives based on past experience and the practicability of field level implementation.

8. Continuous training of audit personnel on modern trends of audit for carrying out specialized audit on development projects with a clear understanding of projects and programmes.