-The Business Standard Searching for independent assessments of govt work The rural development ministry recently proposed “independent, real-time evaluation” of the government’s flagship social welfare and development programmes, a suggestion that deserves attention not just for its pros, but also for its cons. It is true that given the explosive growth in social sector spending, effective monitoring and evaluation are ever more important. The constant hum of charges that extra money is...

-The Times of India The government on Thursday sought to play down this paper's report of March 22 which stated that the Comptroller and Auditor General had estimated in its 110-page draft report that the coal ministry's decision to award 155 coal acreages without competitive bidding had led to "undue benefits" of Rs 10.67 lakh crore to private and public firms. With the report creating a storm in Parliament, leading to adjournment...

-PTI Taking note of the draft report of the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) on allotment of coal blocks without auction, the BJP on Thursday demanded a CBI probe into the allotment of coal blocks and monitoring of the probe by a court. "The coal allotment scam is a major scam. We demand a CBI probe and a court should monitor the probe. It is a government of scamsters (that is) involved...

Bowing to the clamour for scrutiny of the accounts of private power distribution companies operating in the city, the Delhi government has finally approved their audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). According to a cabinet note, the government sanctioned an audit of the three discoms — BSES Yamuna and Rajdhani, and NDPL — “since inception.” The decision to get a CAG audit carried out was disclosed during a hearing in...

Four months after Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh requested Comptroller and Auditor General to conduct special audit of Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in highest spending states of the country, CAG officials have started the special audit in Uttar Pradesh. The state gets sanction of about 20 per cent of the yearly budget of MGNREGA across the country and CAG auditors have started looking into the records and...