CAG offers special accountant generals to keep tabs on rural development
21 Jul 2011
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has offered special accountants generals in states to keep tabs on rural development expenditure and local government schemes funded by the centre.
Following a meeting with the CAG yesterday, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said that there were seven or eight states that consumed about 70 per cent of expenditure on various schemes funded by the union rural development ministry.
The CAG had offered to appoint special AGs in those states for auditing the rural development and local government expenditure, he added.
He added that the CAG was ready to do so by September and the ministry would take a final call by next week, Ramesh said.
He said the CAG had offered to create an audit system for rural development programmes on lines of the system that it had established for local bodies under Panchayati Raj.
According to analysts, the CAG's offer has a special significance as with a budgetary allocation of Rs90,000 crore, the ministry having the highest civillian budgetary allocation among all central departments.