Trying to wriggle out of the controversy over Union Minister V Narayansamy's remarks on the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Congress on Monday indicated that the government will not go in for changes in the auditor's institutional mechanism based on the "activities of a person".
Stung by the Comptroller and Auditors General report on notional revenue loss in coal blocs allocation, Congress on Thursday asked the national auditor to respond to the debate triggered by its findings about its methodology and working style.
The railways has spent more than Rs 1 lakh crore on safety measures between 2017-2018 and 2021-22 with a steady growth in expenditure on track renewal, according to an official document.
Mehrishi has emerged as the top choice for the post, the sources said, adding a formal order on this is expected soon.
The auditor of government accounts, CAG, has faulted the Income Tax department for levying Rs 708.6 crore less in taxes from companies including State Bank of India, Tata Sons, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bharti.
The Central Bureau of India on Monday opposed the bail plea of Price Waterhouse auditor Srinivas Talluri who was arrested in Satyam fraud case for allegedly conniving with its founder B Ramalinga Raju and other aides.
Keeping up the government's attack on the Comptroller and Auditor General, Union minister V Narayanasamy on Friday said the top auditor owed an explanation on its estimated loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in 2G spectrum allocation in the previous auction.
The Comptroller and Auditor General on Friday dragged the Prime Minister's Office in the Commonwealth Games mess by saying that Suresh Kalmadi, who is jail for alleged irregularities, was appointed as Organising Committee chief at its behest in 2004 despite "serious objections" from within government.
In a stinging attack on the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Congress on Monday alleged the government auditor was as much responsible as the Bharatiya Janata Party for the disruption of the just-concluded monsoon session of Parliament on the coal mine allocation issue.
In the dock over three new Comptroller and Auditor General reports, the government on Friday stressed that these were not final and accused the auditor of not following its mandate.
Disagreements over scope of audit cropped up on the very first day the Comptroller and Auditor General of India began to the second round of audit of spendings on eastern offshore KG-D6 fields with RIL alleging that the auditor was not confirming if the accounts scrutiny would be as per the provisions enshrined in the Production Sharing Contact.
With investors asking for a change in the board structure at Byju's, the edtech giant's founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Byju Raveendran, is now asking them to put $300 million into the company for more control. The company has rung up $5.8 billion from investors such as General Atlantic, Sofina, the Qatar Investment Authority, Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, BlackRock, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia, Silver Lake, Bond Capital, Tencent, and Tiger Global.
The Comptroller and Auditor General can do a performance audit of production sharing contracts
United Progressive Alliance key ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Monday strongly pitched for a multi-member Comptroller and Auditor General, saying the recent flopped auction of 2G spectrum that netted only about Rs 9,000 crore had proved wrong the top auditors' report pegging the presumptive loss in 2G allocation at Rs 1.76 lakh crore.
Slamming the Navy for finalising a deal for MiG 29K naval fighter aircraft without their weapons package, a Comptroller and Auditor General report Thursday said the maritime force has now chosen a missile with an "unsatisfactory track record" in the Indian Air Force.
Holding that the Adarsh Housing scam was a classic case of fence eating the crops and 'consistent failure' of Centre and Maharashtra government, the Comptroller and Auditor General on Tuesday said rules were bent to benefit relatives of politicians, public servants and senior service officers including former Army chiefs Gen Deepak Kapoor and N C Vij.
Keeping up its attack on the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Congress on Thursday said the auditor was "not competent enough" to decide on the loss to the government in the coal block allocation issue "just on the basis of presumptions".The party also said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was "clean" and no one could raise an accusing finger at him in the wake of the CAG report" and there has been "no error or wrongdoing".
Cairn India and UK's BG Group too replied to audit observations.
All set for more public interactions even as PM has been critical of the apex auditor recently.
The BJP said the email purportedly by an Airbus executive referred to a helicopter deal and not Rafale.
The situation raises concerns about whether the promised freebies will once again push the state into a revenue deficit.
The apex auditor is busy preparing a report on the Air India-Indian Airlines merger and modernisation of airports through public-private-partnerships, both carried out during the previous term of the United Progressive Alliance government.
The high court had dismissed the PIL relying on the apex court's decision of August 18, 2020, which refused a plea by NGO CPIL for the CAG audit of PM-CARES Fund.
Sukanta Majumdar, the state BJP president, said, "Amit Shah has set a target of 35 seats. We will achieve that".
Government auditor Comptroller and Auditor General has started a comprehensive audit into the role of armed forces, Coast Guard and Colaba administration in land allotment to the scam-tainted Adarsh Housing Society.
In his first response to the issue, Stalin, president of the ruling DMK, said Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (PTR) has already responded to the matter twice.
The CAG, in its much-awaited report tabled in Parliament on Thursday, did not say if the capital expenditure for KG-D6 being raised from $2.4 billion proposed in 2004 to $8.8 billion in 2006 was unjustified or inflated.
Maharashtra Congress leader and former Lok Sabha MP Milind Deora has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into Rs 12,000 crore spent by Mumbai's civic body on road works between 2017 and 2022.
With media reports of audit raking up a coal scam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has clarified there is no report and maintained there was no need for him to clarify in Parliament.
In another huge embarrassment to the government after the 2G fiasco, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has estimated a Rs 10.6 lakh crore loss to the exchequer on account of allotment of coal blocks during 2004 to 2009 without auction to 100 private and public sector companies.
Apex auditor CAG on Friday lamented that private telecom operators are not providing their account books to it, despite a request from the government.
The civil aviation ministry initiated and then made a mess of the merger of the erstwhile Indian Airlines with Air India, according to a Comptroller and Auditor General report.
Former CAG lead auditor R P Singh, who had questioned the loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in 2G spectrum allocation, on Tuesday came under fire in the JPC with opposition members contesting his claim.
Navy has refused to disclose any details about procurement of six phased-out helicopters from the US worth Rs 182 crore for which it recently received a rap from the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai on Monday appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee, which is probing the 2G spectrum scam, to explain how the government auditor quantified the losses in the spectrum allocation at Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Rai was asked to brief the Committee, chaired by Congress leader P C Chacko, on the allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum during 1998 to 2009.
Government auditor CAG also noted in a report that these demands are "unrealisable 100 per cent".
'If you look at assets truly working for us, you should look at Aakash and Great Learning.'
Amidst the controversy over its figures of revenue loss on account of allocation of 2G spectrum, government auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General, on Monday said it stood by the report submitted to Parliament late last year.
In fresh embarrassment to the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance regime, particularly to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Comptroller Auditor General Vinod Rai has claimed that coalition functionaries had deputed politicians to get him leave out names from the audit reports in the Coalgate and Commonwealth Games scams.
The DoT had last week sent a detailed reply to all the issues raised by the CAG.