{"id":309549,"date":"2024-09-07T19:06:09","date_gmt":"2024-09-07T13:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=309549"},"modified":"2024-09-07T19:06:09","modified_gmt":"2024-09-07T13:36:09","slug":"public-accounts-committee-pac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/public-accounts-committee-pac\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Accounts Committee (PAC)\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source\u2013 This post on <strong>Public Accounts Committee (PAC) <\/strong>is based on the article &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/public-accounts-committee-to-hold-performance-review-of-regulatory-bodies\/article68610223.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Public Accounts Committee to hold \u2018performance review\u2019 of regulatory bodies<\/a>&#8221; published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 7th September 2024.<\/p>\n<h2>Why in the News?<\/h2>\n<p>Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha member K.C. Venugopal, who heads the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), will conduct a performance review of regulatory bodies established by Acts of Parliament, including the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).<\/p>\n<h2>About the Public Accounts Committee (PAC)<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Functions-of-the-PAC.png?resize=646%2C470&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Functions of the PAC\" width=\"646\" height=\"470\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Forum IAS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; height: 376px;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"height: 30px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 21.1579%; height: 30px;\"><strong>Aspects\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 78.8421%; height: 30px;\"><strong>Description\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 96px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 21.1579%; height: 96px;\">About<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 78.8421%; height: 96px;\">The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is one of the three Financial Parliamentary Committees, along with the Estimates Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 120px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 21.1579%; height: 120px;\">Historical background<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 78.8421%; height: 120px;\">1. The PAC is the oldest among all parliamentary committees.<br \/>\n2. It was established in 1921 under the Government of India Act, 1919 (Montague-Chelmsford Reforms).<br \/>\n3. W M Hailey was the first Chairperson of the PAC, while Bhupendra Nath Mitra was the first Indian to hold this position.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 30px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 21.1579%; height: 30px;\">Composition<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 78.8421%; height: 30px;\">The PAC consists of 22 members of parliament\u201415 from the Lok Sabha and 7 from the Rajya Sabha.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 30px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 21.1579%; height: 30px;\">Membership<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 78.8421%; height: 30px;\"><strong>Eligibility:<\/strong> Ministers are not eligible to be elected to the committee.<br \/>\n<strong>Term:<\/strong> Members are appointed for a one-year term, and the PAC is reconstituted annually under Rule 308 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 30px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 21.1579%; height: 30px;\">Chairperson of PAC<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 78.8421%; height: 30px;\">The Chairperson of the PAC is appointed by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.<br \/>\nSince 1967, the Chairperson has traditionally been selected from the opposition.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 30px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 21.1579%; height: 30px;\">Role of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 78.8421%; height: 30px;\">The PAC works closely with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), who assists the committee in examining government accounts and audit reports.<br \/>\nThe CAG is often referred to as a &#8220;friend, philosopher, and guide&#8221; to the PAC.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 30px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 21.1579%; height: 10px;\">\u00a0Functions of the Public Accounts Committee<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 78.8421%; height: 10px;\"><strong>1. Examination of Audit Reports:<\/strong> The PAC&#8217;s primary role is to scrutinize the audit reports submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) after they are presented in Parliament.<br \/>\n<strong>2. Watchdog of Public Expenditure:<\/strong> PAC acts as a guardian of the public purse, closely examining audit reports related to the appropriation account and finance account.<br \/>\n<strong>3. Scrutiny of Appropriation Accounts:<\/strong> The Committee scrutinizes the appropriation account to check legality of Funds, sanction by Authority, Procedural Compliance.<br \/>\n<strong>4. Ensuring Government Accountability:<\/strong> The PAC holds the government accountable by reviewing budgetary appropriations, accounts, and the CAG&#8217;s reports on the execution of projects and programs across various ministries.<br \/>\n<strong>5. Reviewing Expenditure for Efficiency:<\/strong> The PAC examines public expenditure not only for technical or legal irregularities but also for economy and prudence, propriety.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>UPSC Syllabus: Polity and Nation\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source\u2013 This post on Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is based on the article &#8220;Public Accounts Committee to hold \u2018performance review\u2019 of regulatory bodies&#8221; published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 7th September 2024. Why in the News? Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha member K.C. Venugopal, who heads the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), will conduct a performance&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/public-accounts-committee-pac\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Public Accounts Committee (PAC)\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1760],"tags":[11872,10498],"class_list":["post-309549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-polity-and-nation","tag-9pm-daily-factly","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}