Comptroller And Auditor General Research Articles

Protection of Self-employed Unorganized Workers under the Code on Social Security, 2020

This research paper will highlight the issue of social security of unorganized workers in India in the light of informal or unorganized economy with special reference to self employed workers. As per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation of the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, in the year 2017-18, out of 47 crores workers around 38 crores are in the unorganized sector. That is more than 80.85 % of national workforce in India is in unorganized employment, and of which a large majority is the self employed workers who face serious decent work gaps, including a lack of access to social protection i.e. social assistance and social insurance. According to the National Commission for the Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS), the share of self-employed in the workforce was 56.61 % in 2004-05. The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of 2017-18 found that this percentage had come down to 52.2%. This large scale of unorganized workers cannot count on access to health care services and at least a basic level of minimum income security, and hence, could not enjoy their human right to social security. This research paper also aims to cover case laws decided by the Indian Supreme Court on social security. Social security is recognized as a universal human right which is integral to the guarantee of human dignity for all persons and social as well as national cohesion. Indeed, Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 affirms that “everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security.” Not surprisingly, there has been a rapid increase of social security legislations in most of the democracies countries like India. In India, social security has also been preserved in the Constitution as one of the Directive Principles of State Policy and recognised by the judiciary as to be included in the periphery of fundamental Right to Life under Constitution. This constitutional mandate has been executed through different Central legislations on social security and numerous other state legislations like West Bengal Transport Workers Social Security Scheme 2010; Karnataka State Private Commercial Transport Workers Accident Benefit Scheme etc. But still there persists some barriers in extension of social security to the unorganized self employed workers in India as well as in abroad as identified by the International Labour Organization Social Protection Platform. Literally the term ‘self employed’ are defined as “earning one's living in one's own business or through freelance work, rather than as the employee of another’ ; “working for oneself, with direct control over work, services, etc. undertaken and fees, charges, etc. ” and “earning one's living directly from one's own profession or business, as a freelance writer or artist, rather than as an employee earning salary or commission from another ”. Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008 was specifically enacted for informal labour and did extend to self-employed workers. S. 2 (m) of this Act which defines ‘unorganised worker’ includes a reference to ‘self-employed worker’. In India, self-employed workers, including own-account workers and assisting family workers, consists the major portion of the workforce. Five out of ten workers are self-employed or work in small businesses. Social security legislation has traditionally covered organized employees. However, India is now adopting measures to extend social security to the unorganized workers including self-employed workers through the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008 and try to overcome the related challenges through a range of measures as provided to the unorganized self employed workers. But the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour found that “even after 12 years of the enactment of the Act, only six per cent of the unorganised workers are covered under one or other form of social security. ” Further, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had found in 2016-2017 that the funds lying in the National Social Security Fund constituted under the UWSSA had not been used since its inception. Further progress is still required to ensure effective protection for self-employed workers. The Code on Social Security, 2020 was enacted on the basis of the recommendations made by the Second National Commission on Labour, which stated in its report that the existing set of labour laws must be amalgamated on the basis of subject-matter. The Code was introduced in the Parliament in December 2019 and the Parliamentary Standing Committee submitted its report on 31st July 2020. Thereafter, a fresh Bill was introduced, namely the Code on Social Security, 2020 aiming to facilitate the implementation of labour laws, reducing the multiplicity of definitions, giving streamline to different authorities under various labour laws and ensuring basic concepts of benefits and welfare to the workers. Another major objective of this Code is to promote relevant technologies to ensure the compliance and execution of the provisions there under.

Financing biodiversity action plan using state appropriation account analysis: A case study of an Indian state

Timely implementation of State Biodiversity Action Plan (SBAP) requires adequate financial resources for the corresponding implementing agencies. In India, the existing SBAPs have attempted to measure the required budget to implement the action plans, but an assessment on public financing, especially budgetary provisions and relevant expenditures is lacking. No attempts were made to estimate the biodiversity-relevant expenditures present in the state that are not tagged as SBAP activities. The study proposes a unique method of analysing the public expenditure related to SBAP activities and subsequently finds the potential gaps to be fulfilled through external funding. The methodology is a combination of top-down and bottom-up analysis of public financing to investigate the Annual Financial Statements and CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) reports on Appropriation Account with schemes implemented in the State, year wise. A gap assessment is done to identify sector-specific funding requirement to implement the SBAP. The findings from Punjab state case study could be utilized by other States to fathom the financial resources required for SBAP implementation and to what extent, States would be able to support the SBAP. The study also recommends the inclusion of PES in the SBAP budget.

The Comptroller and Auditor General: Reform the Institution to Enforce Government’s Accountability

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is an institution under our con-stitution for enforcing the accountability of the executive and watching that public money is used with due regard to wisdom, faithfulness and economy. To perform the job efficiently, there is need for fundamental restructuring of its organisational structure, which is an inheritance from the colonial past. There is a need to convert it into a multi-member audit commission at the apex level and strengthen status of State Accountants General, who conduct the audit of state government transactions, by giving them statutory recognition and greater autonomy. To instil public confidence in the incumbent holding the high office of CAG, there is need for transparency in his appointment and only a professional of proven competence should be appointed to the post. Government should recognise the important role CAG can play in effective management of national finances and good governance.

Public Procurement: A Competition Perspective

Public procurement of goods and services accounts for 25–30 percentage of GDP in developing countries. Since this involves public resources, it is important to optimise efficiency of procurement which in turn is positively correlated with the level of competition in the market. Paradoxically, various factors make public procurement especially vulnerable to a host of anti-competitive practices. The article examines various anti-competitive practices that may potentially affect the efficiency of public procurement as well as ‘red flags’ in various stages of the bidding process that could possibly point to bid rigging. However, by properly designing the procurement process, risks of bid rigging can be significantly reduced. Data from various countries show huge savings to public treasuries resulting from implementation of public procurement reforms. The article also attempts to discuss the evolution of competition law in India over the last seven years of operation of the Competition Act, 2002. Apart from the crucial role of the Competition Authorities, the article underlines the need for procurers to be proactive. Effective public procurement reforms in India would require close cooperation among various stakeholders, such as the Department of Expenditure, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Competition Commission of India (CCI) as well as procurers.

Appointment of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India: A Legal Analysis

CAG has constitutional mandate to audit the accounts of Union and States and is to submit audit reports to Parliament and State assemblies to ensure that executive is accountable to legislatures on public finance management. In the backdrop of recent indigestible reports divulging massive plundering of public funds and resources, the article focuses on what procedure needs to be adopted by the Executive to select the CAG who has duty and powers to question wisdom of the government in expenditure management. The paper also examines what could be the selection method to appoint CAG so that one is able to function towards constitutional responsibility without favour and fear. This article explores whether there exists an explicit and transparent system forappointing the CAG and whether that system facilitates one to remain non-partisan and independent eliminating ‘conflict of interest’ and ‘obligations of reciprocity’, and furthermore, as well, examines the needs for constitutional amendments and other legislative changes in the relevant laws.

THE USE OF CONTROL TOOLS ON PERFORMANCE AUDIT OF A GOVERNMENT’S SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION: A CASE OF EMERGING ECONOMY

The paper investigates performance audit practiced by a government RD Leeuw, 1996; Roberts and Pollitt, 1994; Midwinter, 2008; Shand and Anand, 1995; Wynn-Williams, 2005). The study uses a case study to explore the utility of control tools in the performance audit of National Institute of Biological (NIB) by analysing the audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. A set of control tools developed by Silaen and Williams (2009) for R& D organisation are applied in this case. The elements of the control tools developed by Silaen and Williams (2009) consist of dimensions and values of representation. Four dimensions of control tools are given as directional, bureaucratic, scientific and financial. Three values of representation are given as external, internal and social value of representation. A matrix of dimensions and value of representation is developed, and applied to the audit report of NIB. It is concluded that CAG used all the four control dimensions across the three values of representation and arrived at a suitable recommendation to the Government of India. With a limitation to a single case, this study contributes to the literature by examining a unique case of a scientific organisation, NIB, and by understanding the way in which performance audit was used to enhance the accountability of public sector scientific institution. With a limitation to a single case study of NIB, this study has its originality to contribute to the literature by examining a unique case of a scientific organisation, National Institute of Biological in India, and by understanding the way in which performance audit was used to enhance the accountability of public sector scientific institution.

Is Price Transmission in the Indian Pulses Market Asymmetric?

Pulses form an integral part of the Indian diet. In the recent past, the domestic wholesale-retail price differential has risen rapidly. The retail prices continued to increase without responding to any changes at the wholesale level. The government enquiry into the same suspected collusive behaviour amongst the major traders. This article attempts to test for asymmetric wholesale to retail price transmission in India using the threshold autoregression and momentum threshold autoregression models for four commonly consumed pulses: arhar, moong, masur and urad. We find that the asymmetric price transmission does characterize the market for pulses. The wholesale and retail prices behave independent of each other in the short-run. The results support the hypothesis of imperfect agricultural markets which lends credence to the audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

Going Beyond Mere Accounting: The Changing Role of India's Auditor General

In early 2013, India's then comptroller and auditor general (CAG), Vinod Rai, while delivering a speech at Harvard University's Kennedy School, wondered whether his office should be confined to being “mere accountants.” That this question could be raised in a public forum, and that too outside India, spoke to the transformation in recent times of Rai's stature and the office that he held. The winds of change were reflected in the Indian Supreme Court's rejection in 2013 of a public interest litigation challenging the authority of the auditor general, who is a constitutional authority, to conduct performance audits of the government. Significantly, the Court ruled, the “CAG is not a munim [accountant] to go into the balance-sheets. The CAG is a constitutional authority entitled to review and conduct performance audit on revenue allocations . . . and examine matters relating to the economy and how the government uses its resources.”

CAG (the Comptroller and Auditor General of India): A Panacea for Corrupt Practices in India

The Article is titled ‘CAG: A PANACEA FOR CORRUPT PRACTICES IN INDIA’ as the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India has played an eminent role in curing the evils which exist in the rule making bodies and in preventing the Indian economy from being crippled in the hands of corrupt politicians. Corruption, the root cause of many failures of the government policies, has been brought into notice of the “Common-man” of India by the persistent efforts of CAG. Judiciary has relied at many instances on the reports of CAG to question the failure of policies and deviations from the goal of public interest by different sectors and department of central and state governments. Indubitably this constitutional body has played significant role in controlling corruption in India, till now, as is evinced in the article in its regulatory, environmental, and recommendatory function. However the powers of CAG need to be increased in the light of growing incidence of corruption and thus various suggestions have been proposed in the end.

An Analysis of the Effectiveness of the State Tax Administration in India with Particular Reference to the Value-Added Tax

This study reviews the effectiveness of state level tax administrations in India with reference to their implementation of a goods only Value-Added Tax (VAT), mostly in 2005. The study takes advantage of state by state audits evaluating the transition to the VAT from the predecessor sales tax carried out by India's supreme audit institution, the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). The average performance of the state tax administrations is poor when compared with performance evidence from other countries. The CAG audits examine different administrative activities, grouped into 12 areas here, and document a variety of lapses, from poorly drafted VAT laws, to incomplete automation, to lax tax assessment and a reluctance to levy penalties for detected non-compliance. Case studies of non-compliance, reported in Boxes in the paper, paint a clear picture of how inept some of these tax administrations are. The study finds evidence that weak tax administration and it consequence, widespread tax non-compliance, had a statistically measurable impact on tax performance. Since India plans to move shortly from the existing tax regime to a Goods and Services Tax, this study underlines the high risk to the proposed reform from weak state tax administration unless steps are first taken to strengthen the administrations.

India: Case Study on the Supreme Court Ruling on the 2G Spectrum Scam

In 2008, the Central Government of India granted 122 telecom licenses to various companies in response to 575 applications for licenses. In a report in 2010-11, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India concluded that the allocation of these 122 licenses was characterised by policy gaps and irregularities in procedure. The Government was criticised for cherry-picking the telecom regulators recommendations; for ignoring market based mechanisms like auctions; and for administratively allocating licenses at prices discovered in 2001 on the pretext of providing a level playing field with incumbent operators. The estimated loss by the CAG according to three different estimates ranged from Rs 53523 to 139652 crores. Media coverage of the report and license allocation, hyped as the “2G Scam,” was followed by public outrage and protests. On the 2nd of February 2012, the Supreme Court of India, in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), cancelled all 122 telecom licenses granted in 2008 and directed that the spectrum linked with these licenses be auctioned.The verdict took the telecom industry by surprise and left the Government running for cover. The unaffected incumbent operators praised the verdict for giving a blank slate to the Government - an opportunity to chalk out a fresh concrete policy for efficient management of spectrum and maximization of government revenues. The affected licensees, however, complained that the Supreme Court left a question mark with respect to the future of operators who had already rolled out their networks. Many investors such as the Telenor Group (of Uninor) had already invested over Rs 6,100 crores in equity and over Rs 8,000 crores in corporate guarantees as a foreign investor that trusted a telecom licence stamped by the Government of India. The company had appealed to the government for a solution so that its customers are not affected by the verdict. ''We also expect the authorities to ensure that our 36 million customers, 17500 workforce and 22000 partners are not unjustly affected,'' said Uninor . A few other foreign investors even threatened to invoke foreign investment treaties to indemnify their losses. Some others have decided to write off the losses and exit the market completely.Industry experts fear that the reduced competition by the mass cancellation of licenses is expected to lead to an increase in tariffs in the near future. Further, experts also fear that a few telecom infrastructure companies are expected to become unsustainable as their primary customers were the cancelled licensees. The Supreme Court ruling comes in a scenario wherein telecommunications in India is torn between the New Telecom Policy of 1999 (NTP 1999) and the Draft New Telecom Policy of 2011 (DNTP 2011), which is yet to be finalised and notified in February 2012. In these times of uncertainty, all stakeholders look towards the Central Government for guidance with very high expectations.

Medical equipment in government health facilities: Missed opportunities

The availability and optimal utilization of medical equipment is important for improving the quality of health services. Significant investments are made for the purchase, maintenance and repair of medical equipment. Inadequate management of these equipment will result in financial losses and deprive the public of the intended benefits. This analysis is based on the conceptual framework drawn from the WHO recommended- lifecycle of medical equipment. (1) To identify the problems in different stages of the life cycle. (2) To assess its financial implications and effect on service delivery. Analysis of secondary data from the latest Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Reports for the states in India. The study variables were category of equipment, financial implications and problems in the stages of life cycle. Calculation of proportions. A total of forty instances mentioning problems in the first phase of the life cycle of medical equipment were noted in 12 state reports. The equipment from the radiology department (15), equipment in the wards (5), laboratory (3) and operation theatres (4) were the ones most frequently implicated. In a majority of cases the financial implications amounted to twenty-five lakhs. The financial implications were in the form of extra expenditure, unfruitful expenditure or locking of funds. In 25 cases the equipment could not be put to use because of non-availability of trained staff and inadequate infrastructural support. Careful procurement, incoming inspection, successful installation and synchronization of qualified trained staff and infrastructural support will ensure timely onset of use of the equipment.

A qualitative analysis of the audit expectations gap in the public sector of Bangladesh

This interview-based research is exploratory in nature and seeks to determine whether or not an audit expectations gap exists in the public sector of Bangladesh. Various audit concepts are employed to test whether the perceptions of the auditors in the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) are the same as the perceptions of the audit report users. The interviewees' responses revealed important differences between the CAG auditors and the audit report users in such important areas as auditor accountability, auditor independence, auditor competence, truth and fairness of the reported information and the role of the performance audit. A comparison is undertaken of the possible causes of the audit expectations gaps in both the private and public sectors. A number of these causes are common for both the private and public sectors but some are relevant only to the public sector audit expectations gap.

A Qualitative Analysis of the Audit Expectations Gap in the Public Sector of Bangladesh

This interview‐based research is exploratory in nature and seeks to determine whether or not an audit expectations gap exists in the public sector of Bangladesh. Various audit concepts are employed to test whether the perceptions of the auditors in the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) are the same as the perceptions of the audit report users. The interviewees' responses revealed important differences between the CAG auditors and the audit report users in such important areas as auditor accountability, auditor independence, auditor competence, truth and fairness of the reported information and the role of the performance audit. A comparison is undertaken of the possible causes of the audit expectations gaps in both the private and public sectors. A number of these causes are common for both the private and public sectors but some are relevant only to the public sector audit expectations gap.

A qualitative analysis of the audit expectations gap in the public sector of Bangladesh

This interview-based research is exploratory in nature and seeks to determine whether or not an audit expectations gap exists in the public sector of Bangladesh. Various audit concepts are employed to test whether the perceptions of the auditors in the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) are the same as the perceptions of the audit report users. The interviewees' responses revealed important differences between the CAG auditors and the audit report users in such important areas as auditor accountability, auditor independence, auditor competence, truth and fairness of the reported information and the role of the performance audit. A comparison is undertaken of the possible causes of the audit expectations gaps in both the private and public sectors. A number of these causes are common for both the private and public sectors but some are relevant only to the public sector audit expectations gap.

DEVELOPING STATE AUDIT IN BRITAIN

This paper discusses the development of the British state audit system exercised by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the National Audit Office (NAO). It briefly describes the concerns which led to a campaign for reforming our audit arrangements and to the passing of the National Audit Act in 1983 and considers ways in which that Act could be used to increase the effectiveness of parliamentary and public accountability of central government in the light of new developments in the management of departments.