When to stop

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has been more visible and audible than ever in recent months,and CAG reports have sparked many of the ongoing debates on official corruption. But these have been the strongest words yet. At a lecture in Hyderabad,the CAG tore into the government,claiming that its credibility was at its lowest ebb,paralysing decision-making. We have chief ministers and Union cabinet ministers who have had to resign or have been sent to jail. Our MPs have been indicted by the judiciary for wrongdoing. And,he told assembled police cadets,it was up to them,officers of the all-India services,among others,to make a difference.

True enough,if not in the way the CAG meant. If there has been an erosion in confidence in the government,one born of its apparent confusion and internal divisions,the statements and endless public chatter from civil servants and holders of high constitutional offices is one of the major reasons. The CAG,for example,is meant to keep a watch on the executive and its spending decisions,not excoriate it in public for its moral failings. It can critique policy as part of its performance audit,to the extent that it affects these incomes and expenditures,but it cannot reach beyond that. Attempting to do so is not only a breach of its constitutional limits,it is misguided auditors cannot fully enter into administrative decisions and trace blame to individual actions,without a sophisticated understanding of each department and enterprise like civil aviation or sports events and its spending choices. But this extends beyond the CAG other civil servants and constitutional officers,too,have managed to become media stars.

Of course,it is hard to deny that what drives the CAG and others to express themselves in this unusual way is the governments inability to keep it together. We know that non-elected institutions rush in to fill the vacuum when governments betray weakness or incompetence. If nothing else,the CAGs criticism should prompt the government to lay out a clearer rationale for its policy decisions. CAG reports could provide a valuable feedback loop,if policy-makers explained the reasons for choosing one set of actions over another,and logically backed up their decisions. That tradition of record and explanation has been missing in government actions,which fuels public frustration,and perhaps encourages civil servants to fill in the blanks.