The Hindu Business Line : Kalam outlines 7-point action plan for auditors

`PURSUE ONLINE AUDIT': The President, Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, with Mr V.N. Kaul, Comptroller and Auditor-General of India, at the 23rd confrence of Accountants General, in the Capital on Tuesday. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Sept 20

THE President, Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, today came up with a seven-point action plan for the members of the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG), with specific emphasis on online near real time audits.

Inaugurating the 23rd biennial conference of Accountants-General today, Mr Kalam asked the CAG to establish a secured e-governance grid with its clients - Central Government, State Governments, and public sector institutions - for undertaking e-audit of high-value schemes of national importance.

Some of the national schemes identified by the President where online audit could be pursued include the national rural employment guarantee scheme, the providing of urban amenities in rural areas (PURA), the Golden Quadrilateral, and large power projects.

"This is the right time for CAG to provide e-governance-based audit support system to the Central and State Governments so that the shortcomings that were noticed in the earlier scheme of rural employment generation (Jawahar Rozgar Yojana) do not get repeated," Mr Kalam said.

The seven-point agenda mooted by the President include creation of a centralised national asset register.

Mr Kalam also urged the CAG to develop process controls (like software developers), and guidelines and checks for auditing in the IT environment so that irregularities do not enter the financial management of Government and public sector institutions.

The President also told the CAG that the aim of an audit should be to detect deviations in near real-time when the project is in progress. He wanted the CAG to provide constructive solutions so that the objective of the project is met well in time.

Stating that e-commerce would soon become a major part of the transactions carried out in the country, Mr Kalam said that it would be necessary for the auditors and accountants to generate a policy statement on the best practices for e-commerce for the country in partnership with the experts.

He also announced that the e-governance system being developed at Rashtrapati Bhavan would be launched very soon.

Speaking at the inaugural session, Mr S.S. Palanimanickam, Minister of State for Finance, called for strengthening of audit procedures and standards to cope with the challenges posed by the proposed accrual accounting system.

The Central Government has already taken a decision to move gradually to an accrual basis of accounting from the existing cash basis.

In his address, the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG), Mr V.N. Kaul, said that the existing instructions for financial audit were being reviewed and that new guidelines on the same would soon be issued.

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