The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is pitching for making the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) accountable to Parliament.
The Parliamentary panel, which met here on Tuesday, adopted a report on the “All India Conference of Chairpersons of Public Accounts Committees of Parliament and State/UT Legislatures, 2015”. The report will be submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Thursday.
Tabling the report“It’s up to the Speaker to deci-de whether this report should be tabled in Parliament. It is a special report based on the meeting of PACs of Assemblies and Parliament held in September,” a senior PAC member told
The report recommended that the CAG’s role should be in tune with its counterparts in other democratic republics. “We have recommended that the CAG should be made responsible to Parliament. This will help in improving the ambit of the CAG and give it more teeth. A number of issues such as bringing PPPs under the CAG are pending, and making the auditor accountable to Parliament will help address such issues,” the member said.
The panel has suggested amendments to the Constitution and to the CAG Act to make this a reality. It wants Parliament to be made a part of the CAG’s appointment process. At present, the CAG is appointed by President on the advise of the Cabinet.
“The CAG’s (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Amendment Act, 1971 should also be revisited. The CAG should get more powers to ensure transparency in the accounting procedures,” the member added.