Bengal Guv advises govt to provide right information to CAG

Kolkata: West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose on Thursday advised the state government to always provide the accurate and detailed information about the latter’s finance and accounts to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

“The assignment of CAG should always be welcomed. CAG always reveals the truth. The CAG reports always identify who is guilty and who is not. The CAG should have been given accurate and detailed information to monitor the areas of expenditure. Only the auditors can identify the areas of unaccounted expenses and also reveal who is actually guilty for that,” the Governor said while addressing a programme at CAG office in Kolkata.

He also said that the role of the auditors is also extremely important to ensure and maintain records on whether there is proper utilization of public money.

Political observers feel that the Governor’s observation was extremely important since it comes at a time when there had been allegations against the West Bengal government of not providing CAG with detailed and accurate information about expenditure from the state exchequer.

There had also been allegations against the state food & supplies department of suppressing facts to the CAG, which ultimately resulted in a major scam in ration distribution in West Bengal in which state Minister Jyotpriya Mallick was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

However, till the time the report was filed there was no confirmation from the ruling Trinamool Congress in the matter.