CAG to brief newly constituted PAC on May 17

Comptroller and Auditor General Shashi Kant Sharma will brief the newly-constituted Public Accounts Committee in its first meeting on May 17 during which the Parliamentary panel will take a decision on issues to be taken up for its consideration during its one year-long tenure.
The meeting happens at a time when there is a political row on AgustaWestland issue and there are indications that the PAC could take up the issue for examination.
The meeting will begin with the inaugural address by the Chairperson K V Thomas, who has been nominated by the Congress for the job for third consecutive time.

Since 1967, a convention has been established whereby an eminent leader from Opposition in Lok Sabha is appointed as the Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee.
In the past, the Committee has been chaired by eminent Parliamentarians such as Prof N G Ranga, M R Masani, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Jyotirmoy Basu, H N Mukherjee, P V Narasimha Rao, R Venkataraman.
After the briefing by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the meeting will consider a memorandum regarding selection of subjects for examination during the year 2016-17.

A press release by the Lok Sabha today said that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been constituted for the term beginning May 1 this year and ending on April 30 next year.

The PAC has presented 1544 reports so far since it became a Parliamentary Committee on January 26, 1950.
The Committee during this period finalized and presented
30 reports to the House which included reports on issues such implementation of Public Private Partnership project at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai, Performance of 100 per cent Export Oriented Unit (EOU) Scheme, Role and Functioning of Coast Guard and Indira Awaas Yojna.
It also examined issues like Performance Audit of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Disaster Preparedness in India, and Performance Audit of Preservation and Conservation of Monuments and Antiquities.
Other issues that it took up included important and topical subjects like Non-Compliance by Ministries/Departments in Timely Submission of Action Taken Notes on the Non-selected Audit Paragraphs (Civil and other Ministries), Excesses over Voted Grants and Charged Appropriations (2013-14) and Hydrocarbon Production Sharing Contracts.

The Committee also presented a report based on outcome of All India Conference of Chairpersons of PACs of Parliament and State/UT Legislatures to the Speaker during which a strong pitch was made to bring make CAG accountable to Parliament while giving more teeth both to the audit watchdog as well as the PAC.