Multi-member body will not dilute CAG powers: Vinod Rai

JAIPUR: Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai today said he did not foresee any dilution in the powers of CAG if the organisation is converted into a multi-member body.

"Has the Election Commission got diluted? have their powers got diluted? he replied when asked whether the proposal to make CAG a multi-headed body will dilute its functions.

Rai was talking to reporters after the inauguration of International Centre for Environment Audit and Sustainable Development here.

"Our opinion was called for three years back because a suggestion had come to have a multi-member body of CAG," he said, adding there are three international models for auditing -- the French model, Japanese and Westminster model (which is adopted in Commonwealth countries).

Parliament has to decide which model is acceptable, Rai added.

"French model is the Court of Audit...they have the powers to punish. Japanese model is Commission of Audit...they have certain seizure powers. Commonwealth nations have Westminster model where we collaborate very closely with the CVC. So if during the course of the audit we find something that needs to be investigated, we pass it on to the CVC," he added.

On the possibility of entering politics after retirement, Rai said, "I don't want to venture into something new right now. I don't want to do something that I have not done in the last 40 years."