Suresh Prabhu asks audit teams to detect anomalies within Indian Railways

Jun 23, 2017: Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu recently reviewed the status of internal control systems and internal audit on Indian Railways. The meeting was attended by Financial Commissioner (Railways) BN Mohapatra, Advisor Vigilance, Advisor Finance and other officials.

Prabhu stressed on the need to put in place effective internal control systems and internal audit which should be capable of detecting non-compliance of laid down procedures, system failures, etc.

The need for a robust and effective internal audit system is especially required now due to greater delegations of power at the field level. He suggested that the internal audit teams should be set up in each zone to undertake internal audit studies.

The minister also suggested that audit teams should be capable of detecting anomalies in the system much before the same are pointed out by external agencies. The internal audit teams should focus on passenger interface areas like catering, ticketing, cleaning, onboard housekeeping, etc and procurement process. The internal audit team should follow a system based approach wherein the emphasis should be to detect systemic failures. The team should also suggest remedial and system improvement measures. He further suggested that internal audit should result in prevention of revenue leakages and control over-expenditure by making processes and procedures more robust to help in realigning processes and policies on dynamic basis.