Audit para
Also called: audit paragraph, audit observation · Topic: Constitutional Bodies: UPSC, CAG, Finance Commission and Others · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
An audit para (short for audit paragraph) is one separate finding inside a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). A finding might be overspending, a rule broken, or money wasted. Under Article 151, the CAG's reports go to the President (or the Governor, for a state), who has them laid before the legislature. There the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) picks a few paras for a detailed hearing. For every other para, the ministry must send an Action Taken Note (ATN), which is a written reply saying what it did about the finding. Audit paras matter because they are the basic unit of follow-up: accountability works one para at a time.
Example
The PAC of the 16th Lok Sabha took up ministries that had not sent ATNs on audit paras, and some ATNs were still pending on 30 September 2016. CAG reports now have a whole chapter called "Follow up of Audit Observations" to track paras that are still unanswered.
Don't confuse with
- CAG report: the full document laid before the legislature. An audit para is only one finding inside it, and one report holds many paras.
- Action Taken Note: the ministry's reply to a para. The para is the CAG's finding; the ATN is the government's answer to it.