CAG - Out of 9000 Audit Paras not even a first response for 3000 paras
The CAG lamented that “out of more than nine thousand audit paragraphs included in Audit Reports for the years 1994 to 2008 presented to Parliament, about three thousand audit paragraphs have not received even the first response from the Ministries. This is despite a time frame of four months agreed to by the Government for submission of Action taken Notes to the Public Accounts Committee. Such huge pendency in submission of Action Taken Notes by the Ministries highlights the ineffectiveness of the existing system”
So for the last 14 years, the CAG had been producing reports but some departments of the Government are just not bothered about even submitting a first reply. If this is the case of the Central Government, the status pertaining to the State Governments must be more appalling.
The AGs of the Country had just concluded their conference and they had the benefit of benediction from the President Of India, Prime Minister, Chief Justice and of course the CAG himself.
They will all go back and be busy in their work of producing Audit Paras, which are simply going to be ignored.
The CAG should introspect as to whether it is worthwhile in producing so many paras at such a huge cost only to be ignored and put in cold storage by the Mninistries– instead of presenting a thousand irrelevant paras to Parliament, if it just presents two, then will get all the attention and also perhaps a solution.
It is time the CAG concentrated on quality than on quantity.
You are rated so high that the President, the PM and the CJI are prepared to address your meetings but at the end of the year, some clerk in some Ministry decides that you are not worth a reply – and he has the last word!
We need to change and the first step is for AUDIT to ensure that they don't raise silly objections and become a laughing stock instead of being the Nation's prime financial watchdog.