Eating is an agricultural act - Wendell Berry

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

CAG-ey

the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) of india is a central government agency for "promoting excellence in public sector Audit and Accounting services towards improving the quality of governance".
their recent report on the violation of laid norms in the narmada dam water allocation caught my eye.
their reports keep coming out with a frequency of a virar fast train (speed and punch). this is a google search page "CAG reports". many govt departments and agencies are regularly pulled up for violations and irregularities.
the italics in earlier sentence is the rest of this post.
what is pulling up?
just pointing our errors and misdemeanours in itself serves little purpose, if there is no room for action. the action mechanism (this is a PDF document) is so elaborate in red-tape. here is the starting paragraph:
After the Audit Reports, Finance Accounts and Appropriation Accounts are placed
before Parliament they are examined by the Public Accounts Committee [PAC] of
Parliament set up under the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the
Lok Sabha. Another Financial Committee called the Committee on Public
Undertakings [COPU] set up at the Centre under the Rules of Procedure and
Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha examines the Reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Public Undertakings.
here is an dated article by someone who feels that CAG is toothless.

the other central watchdogs are the central vigilance commission (CVC) and the anti-corruption bureau (ACB). this is the website of ACB maharashtra.

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