The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the Centennial Celebrations of Public Accounts Committee of Parliament of India on 4th December 2021 in the Central Hall of Parliament House. The Vice-President of India and Chairman, Rajya Sabha, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu; the Speaker, Lok Sabha, Shri Om Birla; and the Chairperson, Public Accounts Committee of Parliament of India, Shri Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury; the Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha, Shri Harivansh; Presiding Officers and Chairmen of Public Accounts Committees of States and Union Territory Legislatures of India; members of Parliament and other dignitaries attended the august gathering.
The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind released the Centenary Souvenir of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament of India and also inaugurated the Exhibition on “Journey of Public Accounts Committee from 1921 to 2021”
Inaugurating the Centennial Celebrations and ensuing Conference, the President of India conveyed his hearty felicitations on the completion of a hundred years by the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament of India which is a very crucial institution of our democracy. He said that the Parliamentary Committees in general and the Public Accounts Committee in particular ensure administrative accountability of the Executive towards the Legislature. Stressing on the importance of PAC, the President of India said that the philosophy of public accounts has not changed from the time of Kautilya who devoted an entire chapter on accounts in his great treatise ‘Arthashastra’. He also highlighted the importance of accountability placed in public life by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi who likened account-keeping in public life to cleanliness in social life. He also quoted Professor Peter Hennessy, a noted historian on governance, who aptly described the committee of public accounts of the British Parliament as “the queen of select committees [which] by its very existence exerted a cleansing effect in all the government departments”.
Addressing the distinguished gathering, The Vice-President of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu drew attention towards the mobilization and availability of precious resources and their effective utilization.
About Public Accounts Committee
The Committee on Public Accounts was first set up in 1921 in the wake of the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms. The Finance Member of the Executive Council used to be the Chairman of the Committee. The Secretariat assistance to the Committee was rendered by the then Finance Department (now the Ministry of Finance). This position continued right up to 1949. During the days of the Interim Government, the then Finance Minister acted as the Chairman of the Committee, and later on, after the attainment of Independence in August, 1947, the Finance Minister became the Chairman. The Committee on Public Accounts underwent a radical change with the coming into force of the Constitution of India on 26 January, 1950, when the Committee became a Parliamentary Committee functioning under the control of the Speaker with a Chairman appointed by the Speaker from among the Members of Lok Sabha elected to the Committee.
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