Don't dilute CAG's powers

A recent two-day meeting of the Public Accounts Committees of parliament and state assemblies has made some proposals about the office of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India and its functioning which, if accepted and implemented, will do much damage to this important constitutional office. It is the CAG’s function to audit the receipts and expenditure of the Union and state governments and of other bodies and companies which are financed by public funds. It is in that sense the nation’s financial watchman and so the Constitution has given it an independent status. The PAC proposal is to make it accountable to parliament by amending the Constitution and the Act under which the CAG has been formed. This is a wrong and dangerous proposal because a CAG, which is accountable to parliament, will be answerable to the ruling party and the government. An auditor by definition has to be free and independent. Only then will the audit be free, fair and credible.

Some parties favour the idea of an ‘’accountable’’ CAG. The CAG reports on Commonwealth Games, 2G spectrum and coal block allocation during the UPA government’s tenure had unearthed huge corruption. This had badly hurt the image of the government. Though the BJP gained from that, being the ruling party now, it would like to have a less independent CAG. A BJP MP, Nishikant Dubey, who heads a committee of the PACs, has said that the PAC should be consulted before the CAG is appointed and that the CAG should be answerable to parliament. There is a major fallacy in this. The Constitution demands that the CAG hold the executive accountable. A CAG which is answerable to parliament, which in effect is controlled by the ruling party, will not be able to work in accordance with its constitutional mandate. It is wrong to say parliament is supreme in this context. It is the Constitution which is supreme.

Any attempt to dilute the powers of the CAG and its independent status is wrong and should be strongly opposed. Independent constitutional offices like the CAG and the Election Commission are part of the safeguards and checks and balances in the system. Politicians would like to dismantle that system but that would lead to concentration of absolute power in the executive. There is, in fact, a view that the CAG should have more powers than it enjoys now. Ambedkar had said that the “CAG is the most important officer in the Constitution” and has “duties far more important than even those of the judiciary”. His words are truer now than when he said them.