Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, November 16, said that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has become crucial for the government’s systematic improvement.

“For decades, the image of CAG remained as that of an agency that just runs after files. But today, CAG is now a key part of India’s development,” he said.

“There was a time when auditing was seen with suspicion and fear. CAG vs government became the common mindset of our system. Sometimes officials used to think that CAG finds fault with everything. But today, that mindset has changed. An audit is considered an important part of value addition,” PM Modi said.

PM Narendra Modi was speaking at the first ‘Audit Diwas’ at the CAG Office in New Delhi.

“In the 21st century, data is crucial. In the future, our history will be told through data and there is no agency greater than CAG for the assessment of the data,” he said.

“When I was the Gujarat CM, I used to tell officials to provide files related to their work to the CAG in addition to all documents sought by the agency. This improves the scope for better work and self-assessment. This is a practice I have followed till date,” he said.

Modi cited an example of the banking sector. “The lack of transparency in the banking sector gave rise to various malpractices, resulting in increasing NPAs [non-performing assets]. These NPAs would be covered up by previous governments. But we exposed them. We need to acknowledge problems to resolve them,” he said.

Highlighting his government’s motto of ‘minimum government, maximum governance’, Modi said that the Centre is ushering in new policies to do away the old concept of ‘sarkaar sarvam, sarkaar jaanam, sarkaar grihanam’ (Government is all). He listed out some of the policies brought in by his government in this direction. “Measures like contactless customs, automatic renewals, faceless assessments, and online applications for service delivery have eliminated needless interference by the government,” he said.

He also said that India has now become the third-largest startup ecosystem due to the government’s policies.