|
|
|
|
New Delhi ,(BiharTimes) N K Singh, Janata Dal (United) MP (Rajya Sabha) and Member, Nalanda Mentor Group, also writes in several leading newspapers. His piece in The Indian Express (August 29, 2011) “Of Accounts and Accountability” argues that CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) of India should be given more powers than it currently commands.
|
The CAG is only an ex-post auditor, not an investigating agency. It needs to be strengthened further. The article concludes with a forceful plea. Finally, the CAG is an examining agency and not an investigating one and nor does it have the sweeping powers like some other functional democracies. It is expected to consider the efficiency, economy and effectiveness of all public expenditures and revenue and is the most important watchdog in our democratic set up. India has entered an uncertain phase of governance. Coalition politics cripples purposeful financial rectitude. In these uncertain times, which may last for long, there is a need to strengthen the CAG further.
Time is ripe for N K Singh to practice what he preached on CAG. His august views came just days before the Nalanda University controversy broke out in the media. Now that the Nalanda University has completed one year of its administrative existence on November 25, coinciding with the expiry of the one-year term of the first/interim Governing Board, a CAG audit into the Nalanda University affairs has become necessary. The Clause 32 (1) of the Nalanda University Act reads.
“The annual accounts and the balance sheet of the University shall be prepared under the directions of the Governing Board and shall, once at least every year, and in intervals of not more than fifteen months, be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India.
The CAG is not an auditor merely of accounts. It undertakes performance audits of organizations, events and government schemes. It would be in fitness of things that CAG undertook a performance audit of the Nalanda International University project. It is as per the Nalanda University Act, 2010. N.K. Singh should extend all cooperation to CAG to ᩮvestigate⠩nto Nalanda University scam. For the records, Mr. Singh had promised to a senior journalist of Patna to raise the issue of arbitrariness in Vice Chancellor Gopa Sabharwal's appointment at Governing Board meeting in October at Beijing. He conveniently forgot to raise it.
comments...
|
|
