Impact of public auditing in India

Abstract

Public Auditing has been one of the pillars of Democracy with a reach to almost all the functions of the government. The evolution of the nation also saw the evolution of the process of Public Auditing system. Though there are large numbers of Audit reports presented by the CAG every year, the impact of these public auditing reports are not being found anywhere recorded other than the recovery of the revenue done by the respective departments due to the underassessment of the tax departments pointed out by audit. An attempt has been made to understand the impact of the public auditing system other than the revenue recovery measurement alone with qualitative analysis method and other analytical measurements. The present study attempted to understand the perception of the reach by the department, the stakeholders and the reach of the public audit system to the people of this country as seen through the eyes of the media. The key research findings are briefly described as follow:1) The public auditing systems visibility is hovered mostly around the controversial issues. So there is a need to increase the visibility by the system to the non-controversial and less covered sectors/areas also.2) The recommendations in the reports should be reasonable and realistic in nature with empathy towards the audited organisations. A positive engagement with the audited entity would reciprocate with improved response to audit s recommendations.3) The present system of accountability is weak and it has limitations in getting the actual impact as envisioned by the constitution, therefore it needs structural and procedural amendments to overcome these difficulties of the public auditing system.4) The focus of the audit needs to be towards Social sector and PPP where more of public utility is involved.5) The measurement of impact only through the angle of revenue recovery/recovery notice doesn t give the complete picture of the relevance of public auditing.6) The recovery notice, recovery and money value etc shows a positivegrowth.7) The reforms/changes occurring due to the function of public auditing are not reported through the media which would have otherwise helped justifying the relevance of public auditing.