since 1983, the CAG has been made a member of the House of Commons. DecentralisationTo reduce the workload on the system and make it effective, Mathur suggests that the office of the CAG needs to be decentralised and that independent wings of this body need to be constituted at the level of the states. Presently, the accountant general, who is responsible for auditing the finances of the states, also functions as a subordinate office of the CAG. However, the accountant general enjoys no constitutional and legal status, so he is unable to deal effectively with the Public Accounts Committee of the legislature or take up critical issues with the state government. Mathur points out that the original draft of the Constitution made by the Drafting Committee did contain a provision for an auditor general for the states but this provision was done away with on the recommendations of the expert committee which reasoned that many states may not choose to exercise the option of appointing a separate auditor general and that auditing and accounting could become one entity under the authority of the CAG. To strengthen audit mechanisms, this situation needs to be remedied. The book suggests that the accountant general
