PM opens Accounts General conference

NEW DELHI, April 7: The three-day 20th Accountants-Generals Conference began today with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee talking about their role in pursuit of truth. Inaugurating the convention, Vajpayee said: 8220;An audit is always a post-mortem, in that it is undertaken after the expenditure has been incurred. Yet, it enables the government and the public to learn from how the money was spent.8221;

Talking about the increasing number of scams, he said: 8220;Those who perpetrate them know that they are not likely to be caught. Even if they are, unless it is a large amount it will simply be buried in one of the paragraphs of a report that is not always read and acted upon.8221; 8220;This has to change,8221; Vajpayee said, adding: 8220;We have to ensure that any information that the government auditors call for must be provided at the earliest8221;.