CAG goes digital, now no printed reports

New Delhi: Giving a push to environment-friendly moves, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has decided to do away with the publication of bulky printed audit reports as the apex auditing body is all set to go digital, which means CAG would now produce only digital audit reports. Hopefully, the CAG may present its first digital report to Parliament during the upcoming Winter Session.

A high-level meeting of all stakeholders to brainstorm over the issue is scheduled to be held on Wednesday. Advocating that digital reports are indeed the future of audit reporting, the official said, "Bulky printed reports are bound to become obsolete in the years to come as many supreme audit institutions (SAI) have stated introducing digital reports and even we are in process of presenting our first digital report to Parliament."

The official further said, "On a pilot project basis, performance audit report on customs has been proposed to be presented in a digital format. It would have an online version that would be hosted on CAG's website and it would be accessible for all. The offline version would in a PDF format."

The CAG is also holding a two-day Accountants General Conference, which would be inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind, on Wednesday. At the conference, stakeholders would discuss adopting most modern audit techniques to further improve audit effectiveness and enhance accountability in public spending. The workshop is being organised under the guidance of CAG of India Rajiv Mehrishi and it's been coordinated by Deputy CAG Ashwini Attri.