New Delhi: A reply to a RTI application indicates that India’s top audit body, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), which played a crucial role in bringing to the fore some crucial incidents of alleged frauds during the UPA regimes, has remained mostly dormant in the last five years.
Details of the response to the RTI application filed by the New Indian Express shows that the CAG reports relating to Union ministries and departments came down from 55 in 2015 to merely 14 in 2020 – a fall of nearly 75%.
The CAG, the country’s premier watchdog institution for financial accountability and compliance which reports to the government, had pointed out multi-layered irregularities in its its reports on the 2G auction, coal block auction, Adarsh housing society scam, and the 2010 Commonwealth Games during the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government. The reports became crucial in blighting the government’s image which the BJP, then in opposition, used widely to come to power in 2014.
Against this backdrop, the drastic fall in the number of CAG reports during the Modi-led government appears to be even more conspicuous. The New Indian Express reported that “the number of CAG reports tabled in parliament was the highest in 10 years during the early years of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. But the numbers have fallen steadily after that.”
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Additionally, the RTI reply showed that the number of defence audit reports prepared and tabled in parliament have also fallen during the last few years. “While eight audit reports were tabled in parliament in 2017, it was zero last year. The story is repeated in railway audit reports. In 2017, five reports were prepared but it was only there in 2020,” the daily reported.
Commenting on the sharp decline in the CAG reports over the last five years, former IAS officer Jawahar Sircar said the CAG may not have duly fulfilled its primary duty of auditing the expenditure of public money.
“The last two-three CAGs have not been very aggressive like Vinod Rai. In fact, they were unusually lenient and soft,” he told the daily.
He added that even controversial issues like demonetisation and its impact on the Indian economy was not taken up for audit by the CAG and that was rather unusual. “What was the impact of banning the circulation of Rs 1,000 notes? This came at a time when this institution was required to stand up,” he said.
Likewise, former Lok Sabha secretary general PDT Acharya said, “The CAG has to find out whether money has been spent judiciously and as per the rules/laws. It is for the CAG to pick up all these transactions of the government and examine them. That means the CAG has picked up less number of things or the CAG perhaps did not find anything wrong in the accounts.”
When contacted by the daily, the CAG refused to comment. However, an official who wished to remain unnamed said that the mandatory appropriation of finance accounts reports are sent every year to the government. “There may be some fall here and there on the compliance and performance of audit reports as these are theme-based and depend on the risk assessment,” the official said.