Role of CAG- Public administration & GS

Auditing is the task of counterchecking accounts. In india the auditing of government audits is done by comptroller auditor general as provided under article 148. Auditing is a legislative functions. Hence comptroller auditor general is an agent of parliament. He is appointed by president and submits the report to the president. CAG is responsible for auditing of
a. Central government accounts
b. State government accounts
c. Central public sector undertaking
d. State public sector undertaking
e. Public corporations
f. Joint stock companies ie PPPs
g. Consolidated fund of india
h. Contingency fund of india
i. Public accounts
CAG can perform the following types of audits
a. Revenue audit: It involves auditing the income of a department
b. Expenditure audit: It involves auditing the expenditure of public money by a department
c. Properietary audit: It involves auditing the expenditure of parliament granted funds of a department
d. Stores and stocks audit: It is the physical verification of assets
e. Efficiency audit: It examines the benefits accrued from the expenditure made
CAG audits accounts that he receives from Comptroller general of accounts. The audit report is forwarded to the president. The president forwards it to the parliament. The task of auditing being a legislative task is primarily to be undertaken by parliament. But since the parliamentarians lack the technical knowhow to conduct an audit, CAG conducts the audit on their behalf. The audit report is handed over to the public accounts committee in parliament. The CAG aids the committee in analysing the report in following ways
• Whom to examine?
• What to examine?
• How to examine?
• Suggest actions to be taken
• Helps in analysis of action taken report
Through these functions CAG acts as a friend, philosopher, guide of public accounts committee.
CAG also plays the role of watch dog of public purse by keeping a vigilant watch on the expenditure made by public servants. CAG at times has also played the role of a blood hound. When CAG’s requests werent heeded to by public servants, CAG personally investigated and gathered evidences for example in the bihar fodder scam, coffin scam of kargil etc.
CAG in india suffers from the lack of authority. CAG doesn’t have the authority to demand for infroamtion from public officials. It is through the PAC that he exercises authority. Depsite these flaws CAG has played a key role in governance in our country. Many a miscrepancies have been brought to light in recent times due to the watchful eyes of CAG.