New Delhi: Odisha’s Girish Chandra Murmu, who presently serves as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, has been re-appointed as the Chairman of the Panel of External Auditors of the United Nations for the year 2021. The CAG of India was initially elected as Chairman of the Panel for 2020.
Presently, the panel consists of 13 countries — India, Germany, Chile, China, United Kingdom, France, Philippines, Switzerland, Italy, Ghana, Indonesia, Canada and Russia.
As the Chairman, the CAG of India plays a key role in achieving the Panel’s objective of greater degree of collaboration and coordination, and exchange of information on audit methods and findings, among the Panel members, said an official statement.
“CAG leads the Panel as a distinctive forum to support the delivery of high quality, standards-based assurance, to ensure that reported financial information provides a transparent and accurate basis for the financial decisions made by the United Nations and its Specialized Agencies,” the statement said.
The UN General Assembly had in 1959 established the Panel of External Auditors, comprising the individual external auditors of the United Nations system, who are also heads of supreme audit institutions– Comptroller and Auditors General of their respective countries.
The CAG of India has been the external auditor of various international organizations, said the statement.
Murmu has also been on the UN Board of Auditors from 1993 to 1999 and from 2014 to 2020.
Presently, he is the external auditor of the World Health Organization, Geneva (2020 – 2023) and Food & Agriculture Organization, Rome (2020 – 2025) and Inter-Parliamentary Union (2020-2022) among others.
The 1985 batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer from Odisha was made the first Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor after the union territory was created.
Born in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, Murmu has a post-graduate degree in political science from Utkal University in Bhubaneswar. He was handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking up the challenging job after Jammu and Kashmir became a union territory October 31.
Holding a Business Administration degree from Birmingham University, Murmu is perceived as one of the most trusted serving bureaucrats in the Union Government. Before 2014, when Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Murmu was his Principal Secretary and was tasked to monitor all the prestigious projects of the state government.
PTI
