Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in New Delhi today to mark the first Audit Diwas which is celebrated to mark the historic origins of the institution of CAG and the contribution it has made to the governance, transparency and accountability over the past several years.
Prime Minister Modi said in a tweet: “Audit Diwas seeks to highlight the rich contributions of CAG to boost transparency and good governance.”
In his address at the event, PM said, “There was a time when audit was seen with suspicion & fear. CAG vs Govt became the common mindset of our system. Sometimes officials used to think that CAG sees faults in everything. But today, the mindset has been changed. Today, audit is considered an important part of value addition.”
While assessing the work of the Govt, CAG has the advantage of an outsider viewpoint. We make systematic improvements with the help of whatever you tell us, we see it as cooperation, PM said.
PM further said that due to the lack of transparency in the country’s banking sector earlier, various practices used to take place. As a result, banks’ NPAs kept increasing.
“You know very well the work done to brush the NPAs under the carpet earlier. But we presented the reality of the previous governments, the actual situation, honestly before the nation. We will be able to find out a solution only if we identify the problems,” PM added.
PM further said, “We took brave decisions of monetising unused and under-used elements. As a result of those decisions we have a reviving economy – that is being discussed & welcomed across the world.”
