Friends,
The submission made here are of renowed Chartered Accountant Shri Dharmendra Bhandari in his famous Book "What have you done with our Money" and Acknowledged and Foreward by Legendry Shri Nani Palkhivala.Instances are not wanting of collosal waste and misappropriation of Public Funds and are reported but no action taken, inspite of being a serious offence.
Hardly a moment passes without a common Man of India being a mute witness to the collosal waste in the utilisation of his money by the Govt.
The poor of India endure such inhumane conditions as would normally lead to a revolution in any other country.
The rich endure foolish Laws, maddening amendments and instinctively prefer to circumvent the Laws than to fight for their repeal.
The Role of Audit assumes special significance in the Indian context because of extensive spending by the Govt.
Govt has developed a large no. of controls for the sanction of amounts but there hardly exists any control on the utilisation of the amount.
There are issues agitating the minds of the Taxpayer and on which the Financial Committees of the Parliament are either silent or unable to go into details.
The Committee end up with stringent call to the concerned Ministries to institute action against those responsible for the losses on questionable transactions. This results in nothing but chasing a croocked shadow in a never ending circle.
There are good reasons for us to feel concerned and worried.
When an official is entrusted withh the utilisation of wealth which is not his own he is expected to be fully accountable both in theory and in practice. To be accountable to be able to give reasons for and explanation of what one does.
The two important ingredients of our Constitution are, an Independent Judiciary and Independent Audit.
The responsibility of protecting Democracy from Authoritarian trends and Executive excesses devolves on them.
The need for the total independence of the CAG( Comptrollers and Auditor General) of India, in view of the significant role envisaged for him, was repeatedly emphasised in the constituent Assembly debates.
India committed to accelerating the pace of Economic and Social development which made it imperative that a Constitutionally independent CAG should exist to minimise loopholes, leakages, inefficiency, and frauds in the implementation of Public dev prog.
These considerations weighed with the Constitution makers when they decided not to make the CAG an officer of the Parliament.
Mr.B R Ambedkar said in the Constituent Assembly debates that the CAG is probably the most important Officer in the Constitution of India and that his duties are far more important than those of even the Judiciary.
THe CAG should be the supreme arbitrator of INdia's finances and then alone our SWARAJ would, in the economic sense, be a true Swaraj.
The Reports of CAG to Parliament is based on the principle that the Public funds are spent by the Executives with Utmost prudence, faithfulness and economy.
There are several instances of fraud, waste, delay, inefficiency, extravagant spending, and poor productivity of Taxpayers' money.
Mr. M R Masani, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee(PAC) in 1967-69 stated that the impression he got while working on the committee was one of "collosal waste of Public money". Audit by CAG is potent enough to enforce accountability of the Govt in financial matters.
Several Audit Paras disclose Cognizable offences but no action is initiated.
The Police do not register a case on the basis of an Audit Para, for the reasons known to everyone.
The Audit Paras provide accurate and reliable information about waste, losses etc. It should be taken for granted that CAG reports are accurate unless proved wrong.
Audit is generally preventive. The knowledge that the records created in the course of business will come under the scrutiny of shrewd and experienced Auditor and will be followed by Penal action is a strong deterrent to carelessness, negligence, fraud, over spending and abuse of power.
Two of the basic steps in control of wastes in public spending are independent Audit and timely and effective action on Audit reports.
The political executives pay lip service in the matter of compliance to Audit observations, the permanent bureaucracy prefers to play a game of wait and see, till the entire report is thrown into the dustbins of history by efflux of time.
The consciousness in the Administration that there is a body which will take action against erring officials should acts as a great check against any tendency towards negligence or arbitrariness on the part of the Executives while incurring expenditure from the public funds.
One often sees that even though the Financial comm. with all their Power and Authority, recommend and reprimand, the Administrators keep on committing the same type of mistake and irregularities year after year almost with impunity.
Several Audit reports contain a formidable catalogue of these irregularities and lapses. This shows that the Audit and examination by commission do not yet have the desired impact on the executive.
The Govt Officer are more inclined to regard this examination as a mere annual routine.
The present state of affairs in the Country is a vicious circle. The CAG Reports, and the PAC/PUC investigates. even though the committee, as a result of investigation comes to the conclusion that public funds have been squandered away, it is not able to do anything further.
The CAG says that there has been a loss; the committee says there has been a gross loss. It is similar to that CAG saying murder has been committed, the committee says that a cruel and ghastly murder has been committed.
The committee do nothing beyond asking the department concerned to take necessary action. This is an anti climax and a cruel mockery of our system.
A refusal to see the obvious, a failure to investigate the doubtful if sufficiently gross, may furnish evidence leading to an inference of fraud.
Relief: The Police shall take Suo Motu Cognizance of CAG Reports as soon as they are presented in the Parliament or Assembly as the case may be , and Register FIR against the person of alleged misappropriation of Public Funds, U/S 409 of IPC 1860, Of Criminal Breach Of Trust by a Public Servant, being a Cognizable Offence.
Previous Sanction as contemplated in Prevention of corruption of Act is required when Police file charge before the competent court of Jurisdiction.
Filing of FIR and investigation of police do not require any sanction.
It is hoped that this would evoke a debate, in so far as it provokes informed discussions, since this is the very purpose of this exercise.
Readers may have their own views, will they be so generous as to offer their comments.
Jayhind,
SndpJalan.
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