New Delhi: Even though the findings of performance audit reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India put the government's functioning mechanism under the scanner, the Centre is least concerned about acting on the recommendations suggested by the national auditor as of the 422 recommendations made in the year 2021-22, the government accepted just 83 recommendations, which accounts to 20 percent of the total recommendations.
According to the CAG's performance report for the year 2021-22, the apex auditor has stated that a total 34 audit reports of the Union government and 131 such reports of states and Union Territory governments were approved in the last fiscal.
In comparison to the acceptability of the recommendations by the CAG, the states and UT have performed much better that the union government as out of 1,722 recommendations, state governments have accepted 475 suggestions, which accounts to 28 percent of the total recommendations made by the national auditor in the last fiscal.
Of the total 2,144 recommendations, which were made in the 162 audit reports approved during the financial year 2021-22, a total 558 recommendations were accepted by the audited entities. In terms of percentage, just 26 percent of recommendations have been accepted by the governments at the Centre and states.
"On an average, the CAG had approved 105 audit reports annually between 2018-21 for laying in the Parliament and state assemblies, while in 2021-22, out of 165 approved audit reports, 34 reports were to be tabled in the parliament and 131 in the state assemblies," it said. However, as per the performance report, 21 union reports and 119 state audit reports were presented to the parliament and the state legislative assemblies. Further, one union audit report and 45 state audit reports approved in 2020-21 were also presented to the Parliament and the state legislatures.
As a part of making auditing of implementation of different welfare schemes sponsored by both the Centre and the state governments more transparent and accountable, the CAG has planned to increase engagement with citizens during the process of auditing.
Generally, after drawing the attention of the government over lapses in the implementation of any policy, the CAG makes some recommendations for the better functioning of the department and reducing the losses. In case of Report no 13 of 2021 related to Railways Finances, the apex auditor had made 12 recommendations which included need to take steps to diversify Railways freight basket to enhance freight earnings and also suggesting considering exploitation of its idle assets to increase other earnings.
The CAG had also recommended the Railways to address the backlog of renewal of over-aged assets for safe running of trains and considering speeding up the winding-up process of non-working Railway PSUs.