The Government would do very well in making regulators independent, Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai has said.
An element of transparency should be also introduced in the functioning of corporates, Rai said at the World Economic Forum on India meeting at Gurgaon on Wednesday.
“Which body should ensure this transparency, I really can't say. There are any number of regulators who are supposed to be doing this,” he said.
Rai wondered why the introduction of probity and transparency had to be left only to the Government.
“This transparency can be brought about by corporates themselves.”
He also wanted citizen groups to play an active role in ensuring transparency in the functioning of corporates.
Representing the corporate sector, S. Gopalakrishnan, Vice-Chairman, Infosys Technologies, said there were already several forms of checks in the functioning of corporates including audit committees etc.
There were also several regulators who oversee corporates, he said, adding that regulators needed to be active.
On Government schemes, Rai maintained that the architecture of several Government programmes was very good, but unfortunately there were lacunae in their implementation.
“There are loopholes that are not plugged. If only there was a mid-course correction that Government or policy implementers could take, leakages can possibly be addressed,” he said.
Rai also said that aversion to transparency was coming down in Government.
He was confident that Indian economic growth would soon be on an upswing and that the recent dip was a temporary phase.
Later, Rai declined to take questions from media on any of the CAG’s auditees, including Reliance Industries Ltd.
srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in