CAG gets plans in place to check BCCI accounts

With the Supreme Court ordering wide-ranging reforms in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), including a nominee of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in the governing council, the federal auditor is likely to set up an oversight mechanism to maintain financial transparency in the board and its state affiliates. The CAG nominee will not just be a representative taking part in deliberations of the apex board, but will scrutinise all important financial decisions and have a say. In this exercise, the CAG nominee will be backed by a team of auditors to oversee BCCI accounts.

The CAG is not allowed to audit the accounts of private trusts like the BCCI. But by virtue of the SC order and the presence of its nominee in the governing council, the CAG will oversee the accounts audited by the BCCI's own auditors and certified by its panel of chartered accountants. The exercise will be similar to audit practices followed by the federal auditor for government accounts and in publicly funded projects. A similar oversight mechanism will be introduced in affiliate units of the BCCI where the CAG's state representatives will be nominees. If need be, the federal auditor will question financial decisions taken by sports administrators and carry out checks which will serve like a concurrent audit.

In the SC, the BCCI had objected to the inclusion of a CAG nominee and argued that it would lead to the International Cricket Council (ICC) derecognizing its affiliation on account of government interference. The SC, however, rejected the contention, and said that far from seeing it as government interference, the move should be appreciated as it is intended to bring "transparency and objectivity necessary to inspire public confidence in the fairness and management of the affairs of BCCI and state associations".

An SC bench of CJI T S Thakur and Justice FMI Kalifulla had on Monday accepted the Justice R M Lodha panel's recommendation to include a CAG nominee in the BCCI's governing council and also in affiliated state units.