New Delhi, Aug 7 (IANS) Stressing upon accountability in public spending, Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta on Friday asked the Delhi government departments to take note of Public Accounts Committee's (PAC) observations on last year's Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports and submit Action Taken Notes in a timebound manner.

In a statement on the opening day of the eighth Delhi Legislative Assembly's sixth session, Speaker Gupta said, "Since last year, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been continuously examining those Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports that were not presented before the House during the tenure of previous governments."

"The Committee has now submitted its reports on the CAG reports that were presented last year," he added.

"I am confident that the examination of the CAG reports presented this year will also be completed by the end of the year. I have directed the Legislative Assembly Secretariat to forward these reports to the concerned departments so that the Action Taken Notes (ATNs) may be received at the earliest," he said.

"As I have stated earlier, the observations of the CAG are based only on the examination of certain cases. Therefore, the departments concerned should treat these observations as a warning and take concrete steps to prevent such shortcomings in the future, so that the government's limited resources are utilised in the best possible manner," the Speaker added.

He said these reports are not merely an account of deficiencies, but also point the way towards improvement.

"I urge all departments to take these findings with the utmost seriousness, submit their Action Taken Notes in a time bound manner, and undertake the necessary corrective measures so that every single rupee of public money is utilised only for its intended purpose," he added.

Earlier, eighth Delhi Legislative Assembly's sixth session began on Friday.

The Monsoon Session is expected to have at least two more sittings on August 10 and 11.

--IANS

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