Kerala Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan on Tuesday, 3 November challenged the constitutional authority of any state legislature to exclude or override findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) from scrutiny by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), asserting that a numerical majority in the House does not confer the legal competence to dismiss a CAG report.

Speaking at the All India Conference of PAC Chairpersons in Thiruvananthapuram — inaugurated by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla — Satheesan directly cited the Kerala Legislative Assembly's January 2021 resolution that shielded CAG findings on the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) from PAC examination as a cautionary example.

The Constitutional Question

'No legislature is competent to dismiss a report submitted by the CAG. Having a majority in the House does not give a legislature the constitutional competence to reject a CAG report,' Satheesan said. He argued that such practices 'would defeat the very purpose of parliamentary institutions and the principles of accountability.'

The KIIFB episode, he said, had disrupted the normal parliamentary process and raised unresolved questions about the limits of legislative power — an implicit critique of the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government's move, even as Satheesan now leads the opposition Indian National Congress (INC)-headed United Democratic Front (UDF).

Questioning CAG Audit Methodology

While defending the CAG's institutional primacy, Satheesan simultaneously called for a serious re-examination of the auditor's methodology in select cases. He pointed to two contentious audit episodes: the 2G spectrum allocation and the Vizhinjam port project.

On the 2G spectrum audit, he questioned the basis of the estimated loss of ₹1.76 lakh crore, arguing it was a hypothetical projection anchored to later auction benchmarks rather than an actual, realised loss to the exchequer. On Vizhinjam, he contended that the CAG had applied the audit standards applicable to a conventional public-sector undertaking to what is, in fact, a public-private partnership — a model with distinct commercial structures, risk-sharing arrangements, and viability gap funding.

Satheesan called on PACs to devise frameworks for addressing audit findings that, in their assessment, fall outside the CAG's constitutional mandate owing to methodological shortcomings.

Clearing the PAC Backlog

The Chief Minister also drew attention to a systemic problem: a massive backlog of unresolved cases before PACs nationwide, with some files reportedly pending for more than 20 years. 'What is the relevance of a committee if files remain pending for two decades? The officials concerned may have retired or may no longer be alive by the time a decision is taken,' he said.

Satheesan, who previously chaired Kerala's PAC, said he had cleared all pending files during his tenure and urged other legislatures to adopt a similar zero-backlog approach.

Lok Sabha Speaker Calls for Outcome-Oriented PACs

Inaugurating the two-day conference, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla called for a shift from input-focused scrutiny to outcome-oriented accountability — assessing whether public money is delivering tangible benefits, particularly to disadvantaged communities. He stressed the adoption of data analytics and artificial intelligence to strengthen financial oversight and detect irregularities. Birla also underlined that PACs must function above partisan considerations and reiterated the established convention of placing Opposition members at the helm of such committees.

The conference, bringing together PAC chairpersons from across the country, is expected to produce recommendations on modernising parliamentary financial oversight mechanisms.