In a first, CA firms part of CAG team | India News
New Delhi: For the first time, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has co-opted outside experts, including empanelled CA firms to audit more than 350 central autonomous bodies starting this year.At least 30 cities have been identified in the first phase to audit these institutions this year, bringing in external expertise through expert accounting professionals who will be part of the teams headed by CAG officers, said deputy CAGs AM Bajaj and KS Subramanian during an interaction with reporters on Thursday. The senior officers said these empanelled CA firms are engaged to assist audit teams in financial audits of autonomous bodies to free up resources for greater coverage of compliance and performance audits as per risk assessment.In a change of strategy, the federal auditor has also co-opted institutionalized stakeholder consultations throughout the audit cycle from audit plan development, conducts of audit and in finalization of reports.In the past few years, the CAG has signed agreements with institutions like IIT-Madras, IIM-Ahmedabad, Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics (BISAG-N) and National Institute of Urban Affairs among others for training its audit teams in artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, cybersecurity, logistics and supply chain management.Besides the central ministries and departments, CAG audits more than 700 central public sector enterprises, over 1,600 state PSUs, 485 central autonomous bodies and 700 state autonomous institutions. Recently it has started auditing panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies.
