CAG Murmu asks for advancing date of closure of states' monthly accounts

New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Girish Chandra Murmu on Tuesday urged all stakeholders to work in tandem to advance the date of finalising of monthly accounts in states by 10th of the succeeding month instead of 25th.

He was speaking at the first State Finance Secretaries Conference organised by the CAG of India.

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In his inaugural address, Murmu focused on the need for harmonisation of expenditure at the disaggregate level of 'Object Heads' for all state governments and the Centre, a matter that has engaged the attention of a number of stakeholders for some time now.

He also urged stakeholders to work in tandem to enable advancing the date of finalisation of monthly accounts in states by the 10th of the succeeding month from the existing timeline of 25th of the succeeding month, CAG said in a release.

CAG should remain engaged with stakeholders, especially the Union and state governments, to strengthen and make the public financial management architecture robust and sustainable, he added.

Murmu also emphasised that the reforms in the financial management applications, such as the Central PFMS, State IFMS, and RBI's e-Kuber need to closely interface with the CAG's accounting application in the states for robust and timely reporting.

Deputy CAG (Government Accounts) Jayant Sinha stated that it has been decided to make the conference an annual event in the fiscal calendar. This would provide an opportunity for engaging with the state governments and related stakeholders in the fiscal space on the broader issue of public financial management.

The conference under the aegis of the CAG of India was attended by Secretary (Expenditure), Government of India, Additional Chief Secretaries / Principal Secretaries / Secretaries (Finance) of the states, representatives from the RBI, constituted accounting services of the Centre and Union Ministry of Finance.

State Accountants General dealing with the accounting and entitlements functions of the states and senior management and officials of the CAG of India, also attended the conference.

The conference deliberated on a host of subjects relating to the state finances, fiscal parameters, repository of fiscal information, harmonisation of expenditure classification at the primary level of expenditure across the states, and advancing the closure of monthly accounts, among other important issues.

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