Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla calls for use of technology in auditing, CM Satheesan flags wrong auditing methodologies

The Public Accounts Committees (PAC) in Parliament and State legislatures ensure that public money is used efficiently and for the right purpose, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has said.

He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a two-day conference of PAC chairpersons from 25 States being hosted by the Keralam Assembly. “PACs headed by a leader from the Opposition party and with representatives from every political party ensure that public money is not misused. Although the members belong to different ideologies, they hold a single opinion in preventing misuse of public funds. However, the PACs are sometimes beset with delays, with reports sometimes pending for 15-20 years. This has to be addressed. In these changing times, we also have to explore how technology can be used for data auditing,” he said. Keralam Chief Minister V.D.Satheesan called for a serious discussion on the way in which PACs should treat the findings in Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) reports which are out of the Constitutional audit purview due to misconception in the audit approach. “The 2010 CAG audit reports on the 2G spectrum calculated an estimated loss of ₹1.76 lakh crore by extrapolating revenue based on later benchmarks than actual market conditions. In the case of the CAG report on Vizhinjam Port, the Judicial commission objected to the CAG report bracketing the port under the category of public sector undertaking. Public Private Partnerships like the port operate under fundamentally different commercial risk sharing and financial structures,” he said. Mr.Satheesan also flagged the scenario of curtailing the powers of the PAC through majority in the House, citing the example of the Keralam Assembly in 2021 passing a resolution rejecting the CAG report on Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), effectively bypassing PAC scrutiny. Chairperson of the PAC of the Parliament K. C. Venugopal said that the need is increasingly being felt that the CAG needs to increase the number of audits and focus more on the flagship government schemes including the Jal Jeevan mission and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. He said that although there are a large number of audit reports on defence and railways, the numbers are very less in the health and education sectors. “Delay in placing of audit reports in Parliament will lead to delay in seeking accountability. The National Highway projects in Keralam have encountered repeated instances of slope failure, pavement cracking and waterlogging. The PAC had in 2024 and 2025 recommended the CAG to carry out a comprehensive performance audit of the NHAI, but now the audit is fixed only in 2027,” said Mr.Venugopal. Speaker Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said that the PAC in Keralam is the one which has examined and submitted the most reports with a total of 1,259 reports presented to the Assembly. Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha Harivansh said that frequent parliamentary disruptions result in wastage of valuable time of the legislature. Keralam PAC Chairperson K.N.Balagopal called for a mechanism to address delay in finalising PAC reports.