The Punjab government has decided to conduct internal performance audit of every penny being spent by various departments, boards and corporations, local bodies, panchayats and other agencies availing the government money to ensure the optimum utilization of government money besides bringing an element of accountability and transparency in the working of the government. By taking this decision the Punjab has become the first state in the country to introduce internal performance audit of the government’s spending and this audit would be totally different from regular audit being conducted by the Comptroller & Auditor General of India. Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Punjab in a meeting asked Principal Secretary to Chief Minister S.K. Sandhu to prepare a comprehensive proposal after consulting Finance department and other stake holders. He said that the internal audit department should be headed by a Administrative Secretary rank officer and this department would seek the services of expert international audit agencies including private agencies to conduct the performance audit of various departments. He said that this audit would not be confined to only financial audit but would also cover the performance of the scheme, optimum utilization of funds, optimum utilization of Human resource and whether execution of a project could achieve the goal that it was supposed to achieve. Badal said that SAD-BJP government was committed to bring efficiency and accountability in the working of government and he has already made this beginning in Excise & Taxation department where outside international audit agencies have been engaged to re-evaluate the tax returns. He said that the concerned administrative secretary of this department would get the internal audit of each department that has received government money and he would keep on rotating audit agencies to bring an element of objectivity in their functioning. Badal clarified that the internal audit was in line with internal audit being conducted by various private reputed companies and he was hopeful that once fully operational this would increase the efficiency and effectiveness of government departments.
Prominent amongst those who were present in the meeting included S.K. Sandhu, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, P.S. Aujla, Principal Secretary to Deputy Chief Minister, S.S. Channi, Principal Secretary Technical Education, Kalpana Mittal Baruah, Resident Commissioner Delhi, B. Purshartha, Director Technical Education, Manvesh Singh Sidhu and Ajay Kumar Mahajan, both Special Principal Secretaries to Deputy Chief Minister, Daljit Kaur Sidhu, Additional Director Industrial Training and Jagjit Singh, Joint Director, Industrial Training.