CAG audits tabled in Parliament hit all-time low
Only 18 reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) were tabled in Parliament in 2023, marking a all-time low in the number of such reports being produced in the top legislature of the country. The decreasing trend can be noted to have started from 2019, from when 22 reports were placed before the legislature on an average every year, till 2022.
Between 2014 and 2018, an average of 40 reports per year were placed before the houses. The highest number of CAG reports placed during the tenure of the Modi government was in 2015, when 53 reports were placed.
In four of the last six years, less than 20 reports were tabled annually. The tendency of lesser reports being tabled has spread across multiple departments.
The railways saw a dearth in audit reports being tabled in Parliament, with a total of 14 being tabled in the last five years, while 27 such reports were tabled annually in the preceding five years.
While the last audit report on the Defence Department dates back to 2017, the Civil Department of the Union government saw a fall in reports, with 34 being tabled in the last five years; as a comparison, 42 audit reports were tabled in the five years preceding that period.
