The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will now scrutinise all the schemes of Rural Development Ministry and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Friday.

Announcing the decision, Mr. Ramesh said the two Ministries annually spend Rs 88,000 crore which is the single largest amount of public expenditure other than Defence and it is very important to have CAG audit in the Ministry schemes for ensuring accountability and transparency.

“Now all schemes of the Ministry of Rural Development and all schemes of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation will be open for CAG audit depending on the schedule that CAG decides,” he told reporters here.

Describing CAG as a body that is empowered by the Constitution, Mr. Ramesh said the Accountant Generals in different states will be empowered to carry out the audit of Rural Development Ministry expenditure for various schemes including MGNREGA.

“I should be held accountable, the state should be held accountable, the local bodies should be held accountable. All of us should be held accountable. It is not enough for me to say that we are giving the money and somebody else is implementing it,” the Minister said.

The CAG may conduct not only financial audit and compliance audit, but also performance audits with regard to these schemes.

“To begin with performance audits of MGNREGA in 12 states will be taken up. These states are Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh,” he said.

Both the Ministries have also taken the initiative to prepare a common accounting format for all rural schemes in consultation with the CAG which will lend itself not only to internal check and monitoring by the two Ministries but also audit by the CAG and eventually accountability to Parliament, Mr. Ramesh said.

“A committee is being set up under the chairmanship of Arvind Mayaram, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor to both the Ministries, to examine modifications needed in already existing accounting procedures of DRDAs and suggest principles and policies of accounting at the level of implementing agency, which in the case of the Rural Development Ministry are mainly panchayat institutions,” he said.

The committee will also identify appropriate standards for financial reporting and disclosure, including suggest changes in present format of utilisation certificates (UCs) and recommend how the accounting and financial statements can be made IT-enabled, Mr. Ramesh said.

The Minister said that it has been endeavour of CAG that the internal control mechanisms in government are strong.

“Towards this end, the Ministries of Rural Development and Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation and the Comptroller and Auditor General initiated a joint exercise to prepare checklists to enable the two Ministries to put in place an efficient internal control system for monitoring the expenditure incurred as also the quality expenditure,” he said.

It will be finalised and made public in three weeks time, the Minister added.