Institute of Public Auditors of India News Letter July 2013
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INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC AUDITORS OF INDIA NEWS LETTER JULY 2013 Editor-in Chief for this issue: P.K.Mukhopadhyay Assitant Editor: Harish Chabder Welcome to the new Patron The Institute of Public Auditors of India welcomes our new patron, Shri Shashi Kant Sharma who assumed charge as Comptroller and Auditor General of India on 23rd May 2013. Shri Sharma belongs to the Indian Administrative Service. He was serving as Defence Secretary from July 2011 before taking over as the C&AG of India. Prior to this, he has served as Secretary, Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance and s Secretary, Information Technology in the Ministry of Communication and IT. He has also served on the Boards of Directors of State Bank of India and Life Insurance Corporation of India. THE CENTRAL OFFICE The Central office of the Institute located in New Delhi provides back office support to the Institute, houses the office of the President and hosts the meetings of the Central Council. It keeps close touch with the Chapters and helps the President, Central Council and Executive Committee achieve their mandates. 1. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The 15th Annual General Meeting of the IPAI members was held on 20th September 2012 at New Delhi. The CAG of India and the Patron of IPAI, Shri Vinod Rai graced the occasion and addressed the inaugural session. President, welcomed the patron, the CAG of India, the Dy. C&AG, Shri A.K. Awasthi, senior officers of IA&AD and Members of the Institute and presented a brief of the major activities of IPAI during the year 2011-12 along with its Annual Accounts for the year. The President complimented the previous President Shri Vijay Kumar and his colleagues for the excellent work done by IPAI under his President ship. President’s Address President expressed the hope that the new Central Council would realise its full potential to play a pro-active role as ‘think tank’ to promote advocacy for strengthening public accountability and transparency and professional oversight of public finances by independent functionary like the C&AG of India. To neutralize the motivated criticism of public accountability Institutions by vested interests, the Institute would proactively inform the public and the stakeholders on the role and responsibility of CAG as part of this objective. Seminars & Workshops The Institute conducted a seminar on “Public accountability and Role of C&AG of India” on 27th March, 2012 at New Delhi. The panel discussions included on (i) Role and Mandate of CAG of India and; (ii) CAG and Parliamentary’s Committees. The two panels had very eminent members viz. Sh. T.N. Chaturvedi and Shri V.N. Kaul, former CAG of India, Sh. B.K. Chaturvedi, Member Planning Commission, Sh. T.S.R. Subramaniam, former Cabinet Secretary, Sh. G.C. Malhotra, former Secretary General, Lok Sabha Secretariat, Prof. Kuldip Mathur, Sh. Prabhu Chawla (Media), Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman, Spokesperson, BJP and Sh. Jagdeep S. Chhokar, Director, Association for Democrate Reforms. S/ Shri V.N. Kaul and T.N. Chaturvedi were the moderators for the two sessions. The ‘wrap up’ session was chaired by Shri Vinod Rai, CAG of India. The proceedings of the seminar were published and available in website. Our chapters in Madhya Pradesh and Kerala respectively organised seminars on “Accountability of Panchayati Raj Institutions” (1st November 2011) and “Role of Audit in curbing corruption” (7th December 2011). Research and Publication of Book For undertaking Research Activities, a Research Committee has been set up under the leadership of Dr. B.P.Mathur, a veteran IA&AS officer, who have authored number of books on public audit, accounts and Financial Management in Public Sector. IPAI brought out a book titled “Contemporary Issues in Public Accountability and Audit” edited by a team of 3 senior retired IA&AS officers. The book was released on 30th April 2012 by Justice J.S. Verma, former Chief Justice of India at a function graced by Shri Vinod Rai, CAG of India. The Institute is contemplating to hold a discussion session in a premier Institution for this book. IPAI Journal A major signpost of the academic activity of the Institute is the publication of the professional journal namely, “The Indian Journal of Public Audit & Accountability”. The 13th issue of the Journal was published in May 2013. Institute has obtained the ISSN registration for this Journal and it brings a rare opportunity for the Institute to lift the exposure level and recognition of its efforts in promoting academic research and original thinking in areas of public accountability, oversight and finacial management. The Journal through the ISSN registration can now provide international recognition to its authors/ contributors and its citations can be a value addition to the author’s accomplishments. IPAI would also promote development of the discipline of government accounting and auditing at all levels of the Country’s financial administration and to that end solicit cooperation of the premier academic and research institutions and the government organizations. Consultancy assignments During this period, the Institute successfully conducted consultancy assignments which included: (i) Financial Review of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in 25 States/UTs, (ii) Internal Audit of 12 District Units of Medical Health & Family Welfare Department of Government of Uttarakhand; (iii) Internal Audit of ICAR units located at Hyderabad; (iv) Performance and Internal Audit of 21 Jan Shikshan Sansthan in Madhya Pradesh under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and; (v) Review & Revision of existing Rules & Byelaws and Recruitment Rules of National Rural Road Development Agency. During 2011- 12, the IPAI earned Rs.3.82 crore from consultancies. Institute shall continue to devote part of its energy and resources to promote professional development of its members and earn recognition of the Institute’s competence to undertake large scale countrywide assignments. The Institute is presently actively pursuing the scope of obtaining fresh consultancy assignments from the GOI and State Governments. Chapters’ Activities The President complimented the regional chapters who were quite active during 2011-12 in undertaking seminars and consultancy assignments, especially in the field of internal auditing, preparation of Accounts Manuals, compilation of accounts, etc. Work done in this area has earned good recognition from the concerned governments. Newsletter Institute’s Newsleter gives an update of the activities of the Institute and matters of professional information for the benefit of its members, the 12th issue of the Newsletter was published in July 2012. The newsletter can be accessed at the website of the Institute. In concluding, the President expressed his sincere thanks to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and officers of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department for their help, co-operation and guidance and look forward to their continued support. He also placed on record his gratitude to his colleagues on the Central Council, Chapter Presidents and all members of the Institute who have helped and supported the cause of the Institute. ADDRESS BY THE PATRON, THE CAG OF INDIA In his address, the CAG of India thanked the President, Treasurer and office bearers of IPAI for inviting him to the 15th AGM of the Institute. He appreciated and expressed his happiness over the achievement of some of the objectives set up by the Institute for itself. The CAG was happy about the financial position of the Institute, though there was slight decrease in the revenue earnings from consultancy assignments during the year as compared to last year. He hoped that Institute would make good this decrease during current year, by getting good number of consultancy assignments from Government departments and societies. In this regard, he mentioned about his meetings with the Chief Ministers of Odisha and Bihar, who were very keen to have our help in the capacity building of their officers and staff in the field of bookkeeping and accountancy, particularly in PRI and ULB Institutions. He informed that he agreed to provide the necessary support in this regard as our department has the excellent infrastructure for training in the country. For faculty, he said that we can draw upon the pool of retired and very competent officers, because the department may not be able to get serving officers for this purpose. In North- East States, the CAG mentioned that position of accounts was very bad particularly in Corporations, as they had not trained staff. He mentioned that the department has suggested the State governments to engage people who are B.Com or BA (Economics) or having knowledge of accounting work and our department can provide them training in the fundamentals of book-keeping and accounts. The CAG mentioned that he would like that the Institute should provide its resources in this regard. The CAG mentioned about the sphere where so much was happening in public domain i.e environment was so charged about accountability, transparency, etc. and to that extent the department has charged the executive and the executive have also not spared and charged us back. He advised that in this regard we should educate people even in small number that this was an attempt to ensure objectivity in the system where we as a common people are able to ask anybody in the Government as to how and why something was done and has been done in a transparent manner. The CAG appreciated the attempt made by the Institute in organizing the seminar on “Public Accountability and Role of C&AG” in March 2012. He was of the view that the deliberations in the seminar, which was attended by former C&AGs, former Cabinet Secretary and other dignitaries, helped in clarifying large number of issues. The CAG advised that the Institute should have collaboration with some more well known Institutes in the field in which we are well equipped.