Government to define CAG's mandate

Disagreement between the government and the the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) — the country’s apex auditor — over the latter’s mandate has prompted the government to finalise a Bill defining the mandate and powers of the CAG.

Prepared by finance ministry, the Bill is being considered by a Group of Ministers (GoM) on transparency headed by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. A draft has been sent to the CAG’s office for comments.

In addition to defining the powers of the CAG, the Bill will also spell out the powers and mandate of the Public Accounts Committee and auditors in state finance departments.

A senior CAG official aware of the Bill’s contents said the Bill defined the mandate for each of these agencies and would ensure the audit agency did not extend its brief. The official, however, clarified that the draft Bill, at this stage, did not arrest any power of the CAG.

“At present, the CAG knows its powers. However, the government might differentiate the provisions of the CAG defined by the Constitution, differently from what the CAG thinks they mean,” described a senior CAG official. “This Bill removes these anomalies,” he added. (WAR OF WORDS)

Recently, the government and the CAG have been having disagreements over the latter’s mandate. During an interaction with newspaper editors in June, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had criticised the CAG for holding a press conference on the telecom scam and going into policy issues outside its mandate. “Never in the past has the CAG held a press conference as the present one has. Never in the past has the CAG decided to comment on a policy issue. It should limit the office to the role defined in the Constitution,” Singh said. CAG Vinod Rai countered the argument by writing to the PM: “We follow the mandate given by Parliament and have not transgressed our mandate."

Article 149 of the Constitution defines the powers and duties of the CAG, but doesn’t unequivocally state the extent of the mandate of its office. It is also silent on issues such as whether the CAG can hold a press conference or comment on policy issues. However, in 2005, the Madras High Court upheld the validity of the CAG to hold press conferences. The Bill proposed by the government aims to clear the ambiguity around such issues and clearly state the procedure to be followed.

Since the Bill doesn’t intend to change any constitutional provision related to the CAG’s powers and duties, it won’t require an amendment to the Constitution.