New Delhi, 16 November: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that the thinking about the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has changed. Earlier it was believed that the job of the CAG was only to find out loopholes, but now audit is being considered as an important part of value addition.
The Prime Minister was addressing a program organized on the occasion of first Audit Diwas at the CAG office here.
He also unveiled the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on the occasion.
CAG Girish Chandra Murmu was present during this. In the program, the Prime Minister told the government departments that documents, data and files should be made available to them when demanded by the CAG.
Addressing the event, the Prime Minister said that the CAG not only monitors the accounts of the nations but also adds value to productivity and efficiency; hence the deliberations and related programs on Audit Day are part of our reforms and reforms. He said that even after all these years; the CAG has not lost its relevance and has indeed turned into a legacy.
The Prime Minister paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Babasaheb Ambedkar and said that these great leaders taught us to set big goals and achieve them.
Targeting corruption during the UPA regime, the Prime Minister said that earlier due to lack of transparency in the banking sector of the country, various practices were run. As a result, the non-performing assets (NPAs) of the banks kept rising.
He further said that you are well aware of the work that was done in the past to cover the NPAs under the carpet. But we put the truth of the previous governments in front of the country with complete honesty. If we recognize the problems, then only we will be able to find solutions.
We have taken your concerns on fiscal deficit, government spending in the right spirit, he said, adding further, as soon as the BJP came to power, the CAG introduced transparency in the system and changed India’s outlook on global platforms.
The Prime Minister said that today we are making such a system in which the thinking of ‘Sarkar Sarvam’, the interference of the government is also decreasing and your work is also getting easier. Minimum Government Maximum Governance, Contactless customs, automatic renewal, faceless assessment, online application for service delivery, and all these reforms have eliminated unnecessary government intervention.
The Prime Minister expressed happiness over the fact that the CAG has overcome the murmuring image in the files. He said that the CAG has changed rapidly by adopting modern procedures. Today CAG is using advanced analytics tools, geospatial data and satellite imagery.
Talking about the biggest pandemic of the century, the Prime Minister said that the country’s fight against it has also been extraordinary. Today we are also running the world’s largest vaccination program. Just a few weeks back, the country crossed the 100 crore vaccine dose milestone.
The Prime Minister said that in the olden times, information was disseminated through stories. History was written through stories. But today in the 21st century, data is information and in the coming times our history will also be seen and understood through data. He concluded that in the future, data would dictate history.
