The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has recently made headlines with its advocacy for a three-phase transition to obligatory digital payments, accounting, and transactions for the Central government. This shift is proposed under a new project and law titled the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA).
Understanding the Need for Digital Public Utilities
The CAG’s suggestion appreciates the escalating need for digital public utilities in today’s technology-driven era. The suggestion extends beyond mere e-services, pushing for all government revenue and expenditure data to become electronic, machine-readable, purpose-linked, non-repudiable, reliable, accessible, and searchable. In essence, the CAG aims to usher in complete transparency and efficiency in the management of governmental financial resources.
The Prerequisite for Digitisation
Digitisation, from the standpoint of the CAG, necessitates 100% end-to-end electronic data capture. The scope of this digitisation would encompass all receipts and expenditure transactions including demands, assessment, and invoices. In effect, every financial transaction should be received, processed, and paid electronically, ensuring seamless financial operations free of any potential human error.
Establishing Data Governance across Government Entities
Accompanying the call for digital transformation is the requirement of coherent data governance across all government entities. Data standards, acting as rules for describing and recording data elements with precise meanings and semantics, are fundamental to facilitate integration, sharing, and interoperability. These standards would standardize the data recording process, ensuring data accuracy and coherence.
Laying down Technology Architecture
On the technology front, the CAG emphasizes that all IT government systems need to adhere to a specified open architecture framework. This requirement is crucial while also guaranteeing robust security measures and maintaining privacy. The goal here is twofold – promoting technological openness and safeguarding sensitive data.
Recognizing the Benefits of Digitisation
The benefits of this proposed digitisation are manifold. From recognizing off-budget transactions to ensuring continuity in business operations (electronic records cannot be lost or misplaced like files or papers), the advantages are substantial. Digitisation also promises an incontrovertible audit trail, thus reducing instances of financial discrepancies.
An Assured Control over Financial Resources
One of the significant merits of this digital transformation would be reinforcing the control and assurance of Parliament and legislatures over governmental finances. Every rupee that is due to the government would be collected, and each rupee would be spent for the purpose it was allocated, reducing any chances of financial mismanagement.
Promoting Standardization and Integration across Transactions
Mandating data elements for all transactions will ensure standardisation, minimize redundant data, and eliminate ambiguity. This provision would also create protocols for integration across different databases, further augmenting the efficiency of the overall system.
Digitisation’s Contribution to Advanced Technology Implementations
The transition to digital operations would pave the way for the utilization of advanced cognitive intelligence tools. These tools, including analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, would support the setup of budget baselines, detection of anomalies, data-driven project costing, and performance comparisons across departments and agencies, among other things.
In summary, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s proposals for a three-phase digital transformation under the DATA law could usher in a new era of transparency, efficiency, and technological innovation in government operations.
Source: IE
