New Delhi, April 10: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday asked the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) to focus its audit priorities on facilitating effective and economic use of public funds on the government’s flagship and various other development programmes and suggest ways of containing the rising subsidy bill on fertiliser, food and petroleum products without hurting the targeted beneficiaries.
In his valedictory address at the 25th Conference of Accountants General here, Mr. Mukherjee said, “subsidies on fertiliser, petroleum and food — both explicit and implicit — impose a high burden on public finances, and reduce the pool of money available for developmental programmes. I would like you [CAG] to focus on how the expenditure on subsidies can be contained, without adversely affecting the targeted beneficiaries of such subsidies.”
The government has been making efforts to bring down the subsidy bill by way of more efficient targeting of the needy so that the funds thus saved can be utilised for other social sector programmes. From an estimated Rs 1.31 lakh crore in 2009-10, the subsidy bill for the current fiscal is pegged lower at Rs 1.16 lakh crore and accounts for over 10 per cent of the government’s total expenditure.
Noting that the conference’s suggestions on revamp of the CAG Act, audit of funds released through NGOs, public-private partnership (PPP) projects and migration to accrual system of accounting were under the government’s active consideration, the Finance Minister also sought to highlight some key issues for audit priorities.
For one, he asked the CAG to prepare a report on quality of expenditure to help the government improve effectiveness of the development programmes. The government, Mr. Mukherjee said, would be interested in having CAG’s macro and micro-level assessments, at periodic and timely intervals, of the state of public finances, both at the Central and State level.
“While the government of India has been allocating and releasing huge volumes of funds for various developmental programmes which had also received a significant boost as part of the stimulus package, we would like to have your detailed reports on the quality of expenditure being incurred at the grassroots level in implementing these programmes,” he said
This, Mr. Mukherjee said, was in view of the vast spread of CAG’s audit jurisdiction, covering not only the Centre and State governments and their agencies but also technical guidance and supervision of audit of Panchayati Raj institutions in most States, which would enable you to “follow the Rupee” to its ultimate use.
The Minister also expressed interest in having periodic assessments of the CAG on implementation of the flagship Plan programmes in different parts of the country, “so that government can take mid-course corrective action, as appropriate, in a timely manner, and optimise the use of public money.”
In his welcome address, CAG Vinod Rai reiterated the need to repeal and replace the existing CAG Act with a new legislation to equip the institution with an enforceable mandate.
—–Agencies