This book is of epic proportions. And, the author is no mere chronicler. The saga is that of the SAI of India during the four decades after Independence and acknowledges the heritage that the British Parliamentary system had transplanted here. The tasks were demanding and the challenges were new for audit in the Sovereign Democratic Republic of India. Mr. Chandrasekharan traces the paths it had carved out for itself, examines the hurdles that were strewn its way and the barriers that it was confronted with and analyses the frontiers crossed with an empathy that only a dedicated professional can bring about and with a detachment, which is the attribute of an ideal auditor. He had been watching, one finds, the watchers watching the doers, while he himself was a watcher of both. Rhetoric apart, SAIs do not get analysed this way for decades. It is to India's fortune that after M.S. Ramayyar's definitive history of the SAI in 1967, Mr. Chandrasekharan was commissioned twenty years later to undertake this stupendous task, when he retired as the Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General of India. In his words, "the time span to be covered conformed more or less to my generation in the IAAD". Well travelled, he had held distinguished positions in India and abroad.
The innards of the SAI are exposed and the play of the extraneous influences are analysed and troughs and peaks are presented with an integrity of purpose. The imprints left by the distinguished Comptroller and Auditors General of India - seven of them - are delineated with remarkable clarity. The study and research that the author mentions in the Preface must, indeed, have been of formidable proportions. The reviewer who lagged behind - but not far behind in that generation is one of those who had to grapple with the exasperatingly detailed questionnaires that the author demanded. Like most of the fraternity, he also complied. But, then, we could not perceive the grand design. The four volumes of about one million words have been conceived and executed with a precision that would do a soldier proud. The analytical history flows like a river. No silt. This book of history of SAI India will become a standard reference book to recall significant events that remain hidden in files, a lexicon for the Complete Auditor and a mine of information for those inclined towards research. SAIs of other nations will find food for thought, as lessons had emerged, dents are displayed and as the repair kit is also built-in. In volume I, the heritage, the adjustments and the development of the SAI are presented. Volume II deals with the functional topics in all the areas, concerned with the Federal polity of India. Under an unique Constitutional provision, the SAI is one of the unitary features and Volumes III and IV deal with the accounting and auditing aspects of the member-States, the State public sector, autonomous bodies and the public utilities. One wishes that a magnifying glass came with the book. Most of the charts, well-conceived, are not readable. The logo of the SAI at P.313 of Vol. I should have been reproduced in the four stipulated colours. The publishers should take care of these in the reprint, which may be around the corner.
One would think that the author went about his task with an intensity reminiscent of Arthur Miller, the great American dramatist. Arthur Miller was overwhelmed with the themes of morality that he chose to present. Significantly, the other book review is about 'Moral Integrity in Public Service'. The analytical history of the Indian S AI holds a moral. The auditor must stand up and for that purpose, should turn the searchlight on himself, even if it sears. He will emerge unscathed and well-burnished. And that is the need of the hour.
- S. Soundararajan