PUBLIC
ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE - POLITY
News:
PAC
charges BJP govt. with failure to handle COVID-19 and recommends probe
What's
in the news?
● The
Public Accounts Committee of the State legislature has accused the previous BJP
dispensation of failure to handle COVID-19 pandemic and recommended a
comprehensive probe by an independent institution into issues such as purchase
of medicines and equipment during the pandemic.
Key
takeaways:
● In
its report that was tabled in the Karnataka Assembly, the 21-member PAC led by
Congress member Ramalinga Reddy has observed that there was mismanagement in
handling of COVID-19, including purchase of medicine, equipment and Rapid
Antigen Test kits and distribution of ventilators got from PM CARES funds.
Public
Accounts Committee:
● The
Public Accounts Committee was set up first in 1921 under the provisions of the Government of India Act of 1919
and has since been in existence.
Constitution:
● At
present, it consists of 22 members (15
from the Lok Sabha and 7 from the Rajya Sabha).
● The
members are elected by the Parliament
every year from amongst its members according to the principle of proportional representation by means of the single
transferable vote. Thus, all parties get due representation in it.
● The
term of office of the members is one
year.
● A
minister cannot be elected as a
member of the committee.
● The
chairman of the committee is
appointed from amongst its members by the Speaker. Until 1966-67, the chairman
of the committee belonged to the ruling party.
● However,
since 1967 a convention has
developed whereby the chairman of the committee is selected invariably from the
Opposition.
Function
of the Committee:
● To
examine the annual audit reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of
India (CAG), which are laid before
the Parliament by the President.
● The
CAG submits three audit reports to the President, namely, audit report on appropriation accounts, audit report on
finance accounts and audit report on
public undertakings.
● The
committee examines public expenditure not only from legal and formal point of
view to discover technical irregularities but also from the point of view of
economy, prudence, wisdom and propriety to bring out the cases of waste, loss,
corruption, extravagance, inefficiency and nugatory expenses.
Limitations:
The effectiveness of the role of the
committee is limited by the following:
● It
is not concerned with the questions of policy in a broader sense.
● It
conducts a post-mortem examination
of accounts (showing the expenditure already incurred).
● It cannot intervene in
the matters of day-to-day administration.
● Its
recommendations are advisory and not binding on the ministries.
● It
is not vested with the power of disallowance of expenditures by the
departments.
● It
is not an executive body and hence, cannot issue an order. Only the Parliament can take a final decision on its findings.