The Public Accounts Committee’s efforts to reduce non-compliance by ministries and departments seem to finding success.

The PAC, which has formed a sub-committee headed by BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab to ensure timely submission of Action Taken Notes (ATNs) on audit paragraphs and PAC reports, aims to bring the pendency status to zero by the end of this month.

At a recent meeting with Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, the panel reviewed the progress on the timely submission of ATNs.

A source in the panel said that while there were 2,000 pending paragraphs in PAC reports six months ago, it had now come down to 800. “We are working with various departments to ensure that there is no pendency of ATNs by the end of this year,” the member added.

The PAC has entrusted the Ministry of Finance to coordinate with other departments on the submission of ATNs. The direction by the panel is that the delay in submission should not be more than four months from the date of tabling the Comptroller and Auditor General reports in Parliament.

The members also told the Finance Secretary that there are issues related to the Audit Para Monitoring System (APMS) and urged him to take remedial action. “We told the Ministry that the APMS portal needs to have separate pages for ATNs which are within time, and ATNs which are delayed beyond four months. Also, the variance between the pendency figures as maintained by the CAG and the monitoring cell needs to be resolved so that the panel can directly access the pendency status from APMS portal and treat it as authentic,” a PAC member said.

The member added that the effort is to develop a foolproof system to monitor the implementation of PAC’s recommendations. “This is in line with the practice seen in PACs in many democracies. The Finance Secretary was in complete agreement with our views that a strong system should be built,” he added.

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