Public spending must deliver results: Om Birla

Thiruvananthapuram: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday underscored the role of public accounts committees (PACs) in ensuring accountability in public expenditure, saying public money must be used responsibly and for its intended purpose.

His remarks came alongside PAC chairman KC Venugopal's concerns over the absence of six state chief secretaries from a committee meeting, which he said undermined legislative scrutiny of welfare scheme implementation. Addressing a conference of chairpersons of PACs of Parliament and state and union territory legislatures at the Kerala assembly, Birla said committees must move beyond checking whether government expenditure conformed to approved budgets and prescribed procedures to assessing whether schemes delivered their intended outcomes.

"Public money belongs to the people. Accountability for its utilisation is an essential condition of democracy," Birla said.