President Ram Nath Kovind, who is on a four-day visit to Himachal Pradesh was addressing the valedictory ceremony of the Indian Audit & Accounts Service officers at the National Academy of Audit & Accounts (NAAA) in Shimla today.
In his address, the President said that while performing oversight functions, CAG need to be aware of opportunities of providing inputs for systemic improvements. He said, audit engagements provide a unique opportunity of gaining deep understanding of system and place CAG in a good position of suggesting improvements. He further said that the past 18 months have been very trying for the country as the economy was badly disrupted due to COVID-19 pandemic. The President added that the government has taken various fiscal measures to alleviate distress and for welfare of the poor during the pandemic and these are often financed through money, which may be said to have been borrowed from our children and grandchildren. He said, we owe it to them that these scarce resources are put to best possible use and are most effectively used for welfare of the poor and needy. CAG has a very significant role in this.
The President noted that CAG has taken measures to build capacities in the area of environmental audit. He said, we must always remember that constraints of resource finiteness can only be partly addressed by human innovation. For the rest, the sacrifice by our generation is the only recourse. He said, CAG has a big role to play in making us aware of the sacrifices we need to make for our future generations.
The President said that while performing our Constitutional duty we must always be mindful of this common responsibility assigned to all functionaries. An approach laden with mutual empathy would ensure that we reach our National goals, much faster.
On this occasion, Comptroller and Auditor General of India Girish Chandra Murmu said that the trainee officers have a huge responsibility of taking their Alma mater’s legacy and name of the service to greater heights. Mr Murmu said, the officers have been fully equipped to deliver onerous duties in the field of Public audit and accounting.
On this occasion, 38 officer trainees of the 2018 and 2019 batch of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service were awarded their induction training completion certificates. The three top-performing officer trainees from each batch were awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze medals by the President.