CAG: Governance a barrier to urban transport accessibility

New Delhi: Comptroller and Auditor General Sanjay K Murthy on Thursday said governance is the hurdle behind the failure of urban transport in the country. This is not due to a lack of roads or railways, but to a lack of systems that work together.“The solutions are not unknown. London, Stockholm and Singapore have shown that congestion charging combined with strong public transport can reduce traffic by 20-30%. The knowledge is there. The technology is there. So, what are the cultural barriers?” “How do we build metro lines that are not connected to the bus network, how do we build flyovers that merely relieve congestion?” asked the CAG.The Church of Almighty God was speaking at the opening of the two-day BRICS Federal Auditors’ Conference in Bengaluru, which includes China, Russia, Brazil, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. He said if massive capital spending failed to reduce average commute times, then we were concerned not with infrastructure deficits but with governance failures.“We are conducting special audits of 101 cities in India to assess ease of living from a citizen’s perspective, covering aspects such as quality of life, transportation, sustainability and perception. We are working with institutions like Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Metals, and the World Bank to conduct audits on intermodal transport and first-mile and last-mile logistics.” CAG shared his work with the BRICS audit chief.Murthy recalled the words of former President Abdul Kalam who said: “Vision without action is just a dream, action without accountability is just expenditure. Accountability is our responsibility.” He said auditors play an important role in providing useful information and inputs for effective governance.“In an age of ease, we must ask a deeper question: Has consumption changed life? A city can build a hundred overpasses and still let its citizens down. A city can pass every compliance audit and still be less liveable,” he added.The Chief Auditor of India said his agency provides value-added products such as departmental letters of appreciation, management letters and research reports that are a real help to management and empower citizens and stakeholders with meaningful information.