Audit must move with the times

The spate of  " scams ' in UPA-II had their genesis from the reports of CAG The CAG is the institution through which the accountability of the government and other public authorities spending  public funds — to Parliament and State Legislatures and through them to the people is ensured.The word ‘accountability' really means answerability.  Should the CAG question policy decisions and it  be the CAG's duty as the instrument of accountability, to comment on such a policy that prima facie seems unconstitutional? Answers are currently being  dispensed  supporting either side of the divide.For long the CAG  has  stuck   essentially to post-audit with all its attendant drawbacks even as growth exploded manifold.A system of Internal Audit  ( IA )was set up but had no teeth as it was part of the line management and subject to influence. Auditing  governments and their ministries need to be reinvented.Constructive on-line audit  interventions by IA , must replace post audit . This will make the IA audit team a stake holder rather than an adversary as now. Post audit  can then go into areas of policy formulation in order that it can identify zones of concern and evolve guide posts.With economy going global a good auditor is one who has been able to identify  areas of aggressive caution and ready to help out when national /international commercial scenarios abruptly change. Presently neither the auditor is happy putting out reports on matters sometimes beyond his ken  nor the administrator who had taken  major decisions based on the circumstances at a given point in time.Clearly all this demands auditors of the highest calibre well versed in  multifarious aspects of formulating decisions instead of merely accounting for notional loss of Revenue, after an event

  ( Published inFin Express  Apr 19 )