Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) K Sanjay Murthy announced on Sunday that the apex audit body had identified a few key audit areas, including ease of doing business, and that it also aimed to assess progress made under the theme of “ease of living” across 101 major cities.
Addressing an event organised to mark the Audit Diwas–observed on November 16 every year, Murthy said, “Keeping in view our national priorities, we have identified a few key audit areas. Recognising that more than half of the nation’s population will reside in urban areas by 2047 and that quality of urban life is a direct measure of a nation’s progress, we are reinvigorating the audit of urban local governments.
Our audit aims to assess progress under the theme of ease of living in 101 major cities. This audit will examine citizen-centric dimensions such as infrastructure availability, environmental sustainability, and local economic growth. Our findings will provide actionable insights on urban issues, impacting the daily lives of more than 40 crore urban citizens.”
The Audit Diwas is observed on November 16 as India’s first auditor-general assumed the office on this day in 1860.
“Another important area is MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), which have a pivotal role in employment generation and exports. We are undertaking audits on ease of doing business with a focus on MSMEs to assess critical enablers such as paperless and faceless processes, user-friendly experience and an efficient grievance redressal mechanism,” Murthy said.
“Furthermore, human capital is a vital asset and a strong educational foundation at primary level is a sine-qua-non for becoming a developed nation,” he said. Therefore, Murthy said, the CAG has turned its focus to a pan-India audit of foundational literacy and numeracy.
Discussing digital initiatives taken by the CAG, Murthy said it was taking a significant step forward with the launch of the CAG-Connect Portal, a “seamless digital ecosystem that will connect nearly 10 lakh auditee entities with our audit offices in real-time and ensure traceability and transparency”.
‘Next frontier is CAG-LLM’
“Our next frontier is the CAG-LLM (large language model), an indigenously developed LLM designed to unlock decades of our institution’s accumulated knowledge. These advanced analytical tools are tailored to enable our auditors with deeper insights in conducting smarter audits. With the department generating over 20,000-plus inspection reports annually, this system will significantly improve the performance of the auditors,” he said.
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Vice-President C P Radhakrishnan, who inaugurated the Audit Diwas celebrations, said that the Audit Diwas marks the onset of the 166th year of the establishment of the institution of the CAG and celebrates its role in promoting transparency, accountability and good governance in the management of public resources. He commended the institution’s significant strides in transforming audit processes to act as a facilitator of good governance and to strengthen executive accountability.
Radhakrishnan emphasised that audit was no longer a retrospective exercise but a forward-looking instrument of reform, foresight, and innovation. He expressed confidence in the CAG’s role as a trusted partner in the Government’s pursuit of holistic development across the economic, social, technological, environmental, and institutional spheres, heralding the nation’s progress towards the goal of Viksit Bharat 2047.
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