The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) wants to expand its ambit by going beyond the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) reports.
The Parliament's financial watchdog, which is entrusted with overseeing Government spending, wants to also look into government expenditure in all its forms.
“This panel can look at the government expenditure in any form. There are suggestions to look at various public private partnership (PPP) projects, like airport modernisation and building of roads etc. Some members also wanted to have a look at the impact of the decision to decontrol petrol on public sector oil companies,” a member of the panel said.
The first meeting of this year's PAC, which was held here on Friday, entrusted the Chairman, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, the task of finding new subjects for the panel.
This year's PAC will have to go through controversial audit reports on Devas spectrum deal and Adarsh scam. Other than this, reports on coal scam, Delhi airport modernisation and ultra mega power projects are ready to be tabled in Parliament.
Opposition members in the PAC, sources said, wanted to look at government expenditure in other areas as well. The PAC can seek the CAG's “help” in auditing such expenditures, a panel member said.
He pointed out that in many western countries, PACs have a decisive role in auditing public expenditure.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has been pitching for auditing PPP projects. During a discussion on a statutory motion in the Rajya Sabha, several members had pointed out that Government should audit PPP projects. “PPP has become a big P as in private,” senior Congress MP Praveen Rashtrapal had said during the discussion.
Sources also said that there were suggestions to audit the mid-day meal programme, Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Aadhaar programme for giving unique identity numbers to citizens.
Another member said the Chairman, Dr Joshi, has got letters from various MPs demanding an audit into various National Highway projects done under the PPP mode.
The PAC had studied a CAG report on National Rural Health Mission last year. The CAG audit on 2G spectrum scam was done after a suggestion from the PAC to do so. The CAG has already initiated audit of MGNREGA in various States.
The CAG, Mr Vinod Rai, had recently said that there is a need for amending the audit mandate of the CAG to bring all public expenditure, including projects under PPP mode, within the purview of public audit.
“There is a strong need for an efficient system of audit for successful delivery of government services. The public demand for transparency in the government programmes, including the PPP projects, is likely to increase manifold in the days to come,” he had said in Shimla last year.