ma(a)ladministration

The CAG (Comptroller & Auditor General) of India, the constitutional watchdog of the nation's assets is entrusted with the task of monitoring the manner in which public finances are handled. Its recent reports made headlines when it found fault with plenty of government decisions, like buying the Gorshkov ship. It's job in other words is to point-out ma(a)ladministration of the nation's finances, and is supposed to function as the watchdog of the nation's money.

In Chapter 3 of the Audit Report (Civil) Tamilnadu for the year 2005-06, the CAG report was reproduced in the Indian Express with the heading, Silly FIR's make CAG Angry. The relevant portion reads "Certain inconsistent information like a bicycle valued at Rs.91,943, a moped valued at over rupees 90 lakhs, and a motorcycle valued at rupees 11.10 lakhs were noticed. There was also a case where an FIR was filed for the loss of a Boeing 747 (Jumbo) aircraft, black in colour, valued at Rs.1600 in Kallikudi police station in Madurai district."

But when an RTI application was sent to the Kallikudi police station they stoutly denied any such claims, and when the CAG was confronted, and when a copy of the FIR was demanded by me this was what the CAG had to say, "It is stated that the observation was not based on examination of any FIR as such. It was only a systems audit. As the related FIR was neither examined, nor a copy obtained by audit, this office is not in a position to provide a copy of the same".

If this is the way an audit should be done, do we need another watchdog to watch the watchdog ? And another watchdog to watch the watchdog to the watchdog ? and another ........