SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Nov 23: The Office of the Principal Accountant General organised a gathering on Wednesday to increase awareness about the institution of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and for sharing knowledge and information with the stakeholders.
Dr Rameshwar Oraon, Finance Minister, Govt. of Jharkhand; and Saryu Roy, Chairman, COPU, Jharkhand Asssembly were present on the occasion as guests of honour.
MLA Saryu Rai said that the role of CAG as a constitutional body is clearly defined. But it will be meaningful only when other constitutional institutions work with responsibility. The public money that the government spends should have accounting maintenance and auditing.
“It comes to the fore during accounting maintenance, whether the responsible institutions are using that amount properly or not. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) examines all these works. Saryu said that the officers from the secretary down should be aware of the expenses. But today there is a proper lack of it,” he added.
MLA Rai further said that earlier the Finance Department used to conduct internal audit regarding income and expenditure. For this, there are posts of financial officers in all the departments.
He further added, “Those who were not officers of the department. Rather there were its experts. This made it easier for the CAG to prepare its report. But he is not now. This shows the laxity of the government.”
Furthermore, the MLA also gave advice to the officials present on the occasion. He said, “Rules should be made from the assembly that the government should tell the house what happened on the assurance it had given between the two sessions. This will increase the responsibility on the officers. Due to this, the officials will take seriously the report of the CAG and the action of the assembly committees.”
He further stated, “Even the officials do not know anything about the works of the corporate world. Departments should create a separate cell for this.”
Finance Minister Dr Rameshwar Oraon talked about in 20 years that the CAG has a very important role in maintaining good governance in the department. He admitted that the officers do not take the CAG reports seriously.
However, while being the Finance Minister, he said he has started the work of redressing the objections raised in the CAG reports. The departments were not audited in the last 20 years. When he got the work started on this, it was found that in the last 20 years, irregularities of Rs 9737.57 crores (about 10,000 crores) took place. This audit was done by the State Audit Association, he commented.
Regarding the suggestion given by Saryu Rai, Dr Oraon said that the Directorate has been formed by the Finance Department, in which auditors of all the departments have been included. With this, all the departments will now be audited. Due to this, the irregularities will end.
The Accountant General (Audit), Anup Francis Dungdung and the guests threw light on the functioning of the institution of the C&AG of India and on the achievements of the Office of the Accountant General.
Officers and staff of the Office(s) of Accountant General (Audit), Jharkhand, Ranchi, Principal Accountant General (A&E), Jharkhand, Ranchi, Director General of Audit (Steel), Ranchi, Director General of Audit (Coal), Kolkata, Ranchi Branch and Director General of Audit (Central), Lucknow, Ranchi Branch, were present during the event.
Notably, earlier in the month, the Office celebrated the Audit Diwas on November 16 to commemorate the historical origin of the institution of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and to give an impetus to years of transparency and accountability and contribution to good governance by the institution.
This marked the beginning of Audit Week, which is being celebrated across India during November 18-24, 2022.
