New Delhi [India], May 5 : Congress leader KC Venugopal has been re-appointed chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which was constituted on May 1.
The Committee on Public Accounts, which is the oldest and the most prestigious Committee of Parliament, is constituted every year for examination of accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by Parliament for expenditure of the Government of India and such other accounts laid before Parliament as accounts of autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies, the Lok Sabha Secretariat stated.
The Secretariat stated that the Committee also examines the Reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on various subjects like Civil, Defence, Posts, Railways and Taxation and it also examines the C&AG Reports on Performance Appraisals of various Centrally Sponsored Schemes and also on subjects selected suo moto.
Meanwhile, the Reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the Committee examines instances of financial irregularities, extravagance, losses, delays etc and it also scrutinises in depth, various aspects of the Government's tax administration, it stated.
Since 1967, a convention has been established whereby an eminent leader from Opposition in Lok Sabha is appointed as the Chairperson of the Committee on Public Accounts.
In the past, the Committee has been chaired by eminent Parliamentarians such as Prof. NG Ranga, MR Masani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Jyotirmoy Basu, HN Mukherjee, PV Narasimha Rao, R Venkataraman, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi etc, Lok Sabha Secretariat stated.
During the first year of the 18th Lok Sabha, Committee on Public Accounts (2024-25) demonstrated remarkable diligence, scrutinizing a wide array of performance appraisal subjects alongside routine transaction audit paragraphs from the Reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.