Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India Girish Chandra Murmu
| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Girish Chandra Murmu on March 15 expressed hope that the Rajasthan Government will not do away with the well-established treasury system of accounting as changes can disrupt preparation and authentication of accounts and also transfer of funds by the Centre to the State.
Moreover, he added, as per the provisions of the Constitution, the accounting format can only be prescribed by the President in consultation with the CAG.
The Rajasthan Government has been contemplating to dispense with the current treasury system of accounting and introduce a Pay and Accounts Office independently.
“Accounting standards and accounting format, as per the Constitution, is to be prescribed by the President of India in consultation with the CAG…I think the State Government will take note of this Constitutional provision. We hope that no such thing happens without proper consultation,” Mr. Murmu told PTI in an interview.
Observing that the treasury system of accounting is well established in the country, the CAG said, any change will disrupt account preparation, authentication and transfer of funds by the Central Government.
On the possibility of auditing accounts of private companies, Mr. Murmu said that CAG conducts audits of only public sector undertakings and corporations.
“The private sector entities come indirectly wherever there is a joint venture or some PPPs (Public Private Partnership) are there. We see that PPP terms and conditions …kinds of contractual obligations and how they are performing. To that extent we do the audit.”
“We don’t go into commercial audits of their balance sheet and that kind of thing. We don’t do that. That is beyond our purview,” he said.
On the use of latest technology for speeding up audits, Mr. Murmu said that CAG has been focusing on usage of information technology tools like data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to come out with audit reports in less time.
“As far as emerging technologies like data analytics and machine learning are concerned, we are experimenting or using some space and some audits. Also we are trying to integrate artificial intelligence,” he said.
The CAG, he added, has also been trying to address challenges with regard to capacity building to expedite integration of new information technological tools in the auditing process.
