While, on one hand, the PM Cares fund has been banked with donations and contributions from the people to the corporate entities to enhance the financial machinery of the Indian government to combat the Coronavirus pandemic, on the other hand, the reports have shockingly revealed that the amount spent from the corpus fund won't go under the lens of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, instead, it would be audited by the independent auditors. 

According to the reports, the PM Cares Fund has been set up by the Union Cabinet on March 28 to receive donations from the individual and companies, as a stimulus to the Central government, to curb the spread of the pandemic and the amount received and spend through this channel of PM Cares would be subjected to audit only if the trustees or members consent to audit the accounts. 

The installation of such a funding channel, which can be skipped from auditing, has raised speculations on how it would be handled by the government as it remains unclear how the corpus fund would be audited. It also has swirled the questions on why the fund has been created as the Central government already has the availability of the funding channel - the Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF) since 1948. 

Shocking news that C&AG will not audit PM CARES fund. It was opaque to begin with. Is it going the way of electoral bonds? Now Bhagwan is Malik. Nothing is sacrosanct any more.

— Yashwant Sinha (@YashwantSinha) April 24, 2020

According to the reports, the CAG office has stated that it has no right to audit the charitable organization since the fund collected through PM Cares is based on donations of individuals and organizations and the auditing body can scrutinize the accounts of PM Cares Fund only if the trustees permit to audit the channel. According to the government, the fund will be audited by the independent auditors who will be appointed by the trustees.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the chairperson of PM Cares Fund and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, and Home Minister Amit Shah have been inducted as trustees or members of the fund. Despite no clarity on the audit, the Central government, including the Prime Minister, has been appealing to the people to donate to the fund to fight against the Coronavirus pandemic. 

PM CARES Trust has FM, RM, HM as members. PMNRF has Congress president and reps of FICCI and Tata Trust as members. So the second is transparent and the first is opaque. It is also in violation of the official symbols act. The two trusts are not comparable.

— Yashwant Sinha (@YashwantSinha) April 25, 2020

Recently, the Union Cabinet Secretary has asked the secretaries at the Union Ministries to instruct the officials and public sector units towards making donations to the fund. However, the opposition parties and several Chief Ministers had raised questions on prioritizing PM Cares Fund over the state Chief Ministers relief funds.

The reports have stated that the International organizations including the World Health Organization have also been getting their accounts audited and the PM Cares Fund has been receiving more donations from the individuals, industries, celebrities, and government departments amid facing transparency tests.