Mint Explainer: Why CAG plans to audit government departments in real time

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the national auditor, is preparing to overhaul the way it audits government departments by moving from post-facto examination of accounts to real-time audits of public spending, project execution and service delivery. The shift marks one of the most significant changes to India’s audit architecture in decades, and comes at a time when governments are executing larger, technology-driven programmes that require closer and more continuous oversight.

Under the existing system, most CAG audits are carried out after the end of a financial year. This limits its ability to flag risks early, and reduces the scope for course correction while a project is underway. The new approach aims to plug this gap by allowing the CAG to review data, documents and progress metrics as they are generated, instead of waiting for the project to end.

According to a CAG official, who wished to remain anonymous, the institutional shift toward real-time and remote audits is already underway and the full rollout could begin by late 2025 or early 2026. Traditional CAG audits are usually tabled one to three years after major decisions are made, which significantly reduces their usefulness for course correction. High-profile cases such as the 2G spectrum allocation and coal block allotments were audited well after the licences were issued, limiting the government’s ability to prevent losses, even though the audits later became politically significant.

The 2G report, tabled in 2010, estimated a ₹1.76 trillion loss; the coal block audit in 2012 flagged potential gains of ₹1.86 trillion to private companies. But by then, the damage was already done. Several other less well-known