All audit work across India will become paperless and will only be carried out digitally from April 1, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) announced on Friday.
The historic development will ensure that CAG’s 130-odd offices will not have to go through hundreds and thousands of files physically and records can be maintained for eternity.
“…. from tomorrow onwards, all new audit work in our institution will take place only through OIOS (One IAAD One System) and physical paper-based workflow must cease. From tomorrow onwards, the digitization process would be irreversible,” CAG Girish Chandra Murmu said on Friday.
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The OIOS rollout process, Murmu said, involved work relating to master data, audit design, audit execution, legacy data migration, knowledge management system, quality assurance, quality control, audit products, communication and follow-up.
“The institution of the CAG has always been one of the first government organizations to adopt new technology in its working model. Be it digitizing the accounting and entitlement process, adopting IT (Information Technology) enabled audit, using data analytics in facilitating audit, or workflow automation, OIOS is a step in that direction which strengthens our audit officers to continue to provide independent and credible assurance on public resources and be a global leader in public sector auditing,” the federal auditor said in a statement quoting Murmu.
Envisaged in late 2019-early 2020, OIOS is a web-enabled solution with support for multiple languages with offline functionality and a mobile app. It is the primary system of record (single source of truth) for the entire chain of audit activities, from audit planning and design through audit execution to issue and follow-up of inspection reports to processing and finalization of the CAG’s audit reports and follow-up. It covers all types of audit – compliance, financial and performance.
Generally, close to 90 audit reports are prepared through CAG’s 130 offices across India and approved every year for submission to Parliament, state legislature or union territory legislature, containing findings on government business transacted during the preceding financial year (or earlier years). Digitisation will mean that no physical documents need to be studied by the auditors.
According to a CAG official, the historic step will not only ensure accountability but also accuracy.
“This will tremendously change how the audits are done. Even communication will take place through this system. Nobody can remove any document or data and say an audit was not carried out. The system will ensure full responsibility, transparency and complete documentation. Besides, there will be a permanent record of everything and a lot of paper will be saved,” said the official who did not wish to be named.
The official said all audit offices across India have been connected in the system and the ministries/departments– the auditees– will be connected in the next stage.
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According to a person familiar with the initiative, reports tabled in parliament will also be digitized. Already, as a pilot project, a few reports have been prepared digitally, he said.
Murmu emphasized that to audit, the technology used by the government in delivering services as well as ensuring equity, efficiency, effectiveness, and ethics in such delivery, the auditors need to be one step ahead of the government.
“Government of India has forged ahead with the Digital India programme through which it has used technology extensively in every sector of economy and governance. Extensive use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in all fields is an inevitable outcome of government policies. IAAD (Indian Audit and Accounts Department) is working towards building infrastructure and processes for artificial intelligence and machine learning and harnessing the potential of these technologies for delivering audit products more effectively,” Murmu added, according to the statement by the CAG office.
