New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will begin auditing the government’s expenditures incurred in combating the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21 itself, a top official source told ETV Bharat.
The national auditor’s move is significant in the backdrop of many reports from across the country alleging misappropriation and corruption involving huge amounts of money in test kits, medicine and equipment procurement, treatment, creation of new medical infrastructure and other logistics in combating the novel coronavirus.
“There is already a plan being prepared for the year 2020-21 which will look into the availability of drugs, medicines and equipment in government medical institutions across the states with a focus on centralized procurement, distribution and storage by leveraging technology. There is no need to take up a separate audit of COVID-19 expenditures,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
“This audit will include expenses incurred on COVID-19 related work. The audit will include in its ambit state medical services corporations or health corporations or state government departments,” the source added.
The CAG’s Southern Region has been entrusted with the conduct of the audit. Of course, the CAG initiative will depend on several factors like how long the ongoing pandemic lasts.
The humongous COVID-19 audit would have been much easier if all the spend data was available in electronic form as opposed to the manual entry of data still prevalent nowadays, although a move is definitely afoot towards making the CAG a paperless institution in its work and procedures.
Elaborating the move, outgoing CAG Rajiv Mehrishi told ETV Bharat on Thursday: “We have recommended to the President of India to bring in a new law that will make it mandatory to electronically record all central and states expenditure data. We have also suggested the new law which can be named ‘Data Accountability and Transparency Act’ (DATA)."