ACCOUNTANCY: Restoring faith in audit.

from BUSINESS LINE, November 18, 2010 The media and opposition parties in Parliament, apart from ensuring the ouster of minister A. Raja, have done a signal service to the nation in general and the auditing world in particular - restoring faith in audit.

The CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report often begets as much respect as a drain inspector's report and heavyweight politicians routinely shrug off adverse comments by the CAG as his occupational necessity - fault finding. The loss to the exchequer on account of 2G spectrum allocation is estimated at around Rs 1,76,000 crore, the figure mentioned by the CAG with a caveat that it indeed could be more or less. Couched in legalese Call this performance audit or operational audit or management audit, what matters is the approach and the end result. …