Vinod Rai, a 1972 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, took oath on Monday as the country's new Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Rai, who replaced V N Kaul, was administered the oath of office by President Pratibha Patil at a brief function at Rashtrapati Bhawan. Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram were among the dignitaries present at the ceremony.
Reliance Industries on Wednesday assailed reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General and expert P Gopalakrishnan, which have alleged the company got undue benefits pertaining to Krishna-Godavari basin gas and its pricing.
The defence ministry's new procurement policy is causing delays.
Despite the hope that lessons will be learnt, the next accident invariably shows that nothing has been learnt -- or if learnt, they have been ignored, observes Prosenjit Datta.
The reports also claim that the same beneficiary had been found to avail treatment at two hospitals at the same time.
Reliance Industries has written to the government that it has no objection to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India auditing its gas field costs and said it is operating the field in compliance with rules.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Friday criticised the previous National Democratic Alliance government for undervaluation of a number of public sector units, including Balco and VSNL, where equity was divested.\n\n
With the Comptroller and Auditor General slamming the government for buying the second-hand Admiral Gorshkov at the price of a new aircraft carrier, Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta on Thursday defended the price being paid by India for the warship.
In a first, the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) officers reached out to several ministries in the last week of April as part of a confidence-boosting measure. The meeting brought the CAG officials and those from the ministries across the table to discuss the pain points in their relations. CAG of India Girish Chandra Murmu took this novel step because of growing tensions between those audited and the auditor.
West Bengal lost Rs 546.68 crore (Rs 5.46 billion) in 2007-08 for not having its own fiscal responsibility law, which mandates fiscal discipline, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
CAG said that Reliance Infocomm and Tata Tele Services Ltd have caused a loss of Rs 184 crore to 3 state-run insurance firms between 2002-05 on risk cover for mobile handsets and default payments.
State-run power firm NTPC overstated its profits by Rs 938 crore (R 9.38 billion) in 2007-08, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said in a report, but categorically stated that chances of Satyam like frauds in PSUs are very remote.
Former CAG Rajiv Mehrishi says Centre has held back a report he submitted to the President, to end what he called "a nightmare of accounts that militates against good governance".
The CAG, who blamed what he called a lack of accountability in bureaucracy for delays in action on audit reports, said officials who sit over them should be punished.
For the first time in its history, the department of the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) has conducted a cleanliness audit for the Indian Railways.
Handing out a reprimand to the Navy for the lapse, the CAG said this was 'seriously limiting their operations capabilities.'
Seeking the government's assurance to the House that it would not henceforth enter into "such dubious deals" with the United States, Basudeb Acharia of the Communist Party of India-Marxist asked why the government bought the 1971 vintage vessel for $50 million when the US Navy had decided in 2003 that it was not suitable for modernisation and should be decommissioned in 2006.
According to the recent report, IAF's Air Officer Commander at one of the stations was approached by the Reliance Infocomm for installation of a booster antenna within the station complex in May 2004 and the permission was granted by the concerned authorities. The company was asked to pay Rs 5,000 as rent and allied charges to the government, which was subsequently reduced to Rs 1,000 in September 2005.
Byju's, India's most-valued startup, has decided to put two of its key assets -- Epic and Great Learning -- on the block to generate $800 million-$1 billion in cash, with an aim to meet the edtech firm's various commitments, including repaying the entire $1.2 billion term loan B (TLB) within six months, according to sources. The cash-strapped company has proposed repaying $300 million of the $1.2 billion loan in the next three months, depending on whether the lenders accept Byju's amendment proposal, said the people familiar with the development. "This loan repayment proposal has been submitted to the lenders and conversations are going in the right direction," said a person in the know.
The recent draft report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which pointed to misuse and non-utilisation of funds for the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme doesn't mean the programme is a write-off. The audit will act as a deterrent and spur state governments to work more efficiently, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has said.
With the photo-identity card issue in the capital kicking up a major controversy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said that if there are any practical problems, these will be resolved. "I do not want to go into the motives. If there are any practical problems, we will resolve them," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function where the new Comptroller and Auditor General of India was sworn-in at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of Byju's shareholders got underway on Friday to vote on a resolution brought by some investors to ouster founder CEO Byju Raveendran and his family over alleged "mismanagement and failures". Raveendran and his family stayed away from the EGM, calling it "procedurally invalid."
His appointment will be effective from the date he assumes charge of his office, an official statement said on Monday. An Indian Administrative Service officer of Kerala cadre, 1972 batch, Rai will take over from V N Kaul.
Congress on Friday sought the dismissal of Divestment Minister Arun Shourie from the Cabinet for his statement terming as "idiotic" the Comptroller and Auditor General's
The company's accounts were audited by CAG as its shareholders include public sector banks.
Aadhaar is falling behind on technology, missing out on confidentiality and has gaps in its data archiving policy and preserving confidentiality in delivery of the cards to people, says a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). The performance report, 'Functioning Of Unique Identification Authority Of India', tabled in Parliament on the last day of the budget session notes, assigning a unique identity to all resident Indians was supposed to be the key feature of Aadhaar. But "There were instances of issue of Aadhaar with the same biometric data to different residents indicating flaws in the de-duplication process and issue of Aadhaar on faulty biometrics and documents". It says close to half a million such records had to be cancelled by the Unique Identification Authority of India up to 2016.
Comptroller and Auditor General has pulled up the finance ministry for flaws in double taxation avoidance agreements
The injured, two of them seriously hurt, have been admitted at the Bangad Hospital in Pali, they said, adding the incident led to the disruption of traffic on the route with nearly two dozen trains cancelled or diverted.
Unable to face competition of a liberalised environment, as many as 88 public sector undertakings have eroded
Audit scrutiny of expenditure on foodgrains (Rs 37.4 crore) and cash dole (Rs 44.59 crore) revealed delay in distribution, doubtful purchase of material, doubtful distribution of foodgrain and non-submission of detailed contingent bills.
The government carries out a review of the defence procurement process every two years to make changes gained from experience and to incorporate new contract clauses for probity.
The Bhartiya Janata Party on Saturday disputed the expenditure amount for the 'India Shining' media campaign.
The Comptroller and Auditor General on Friday pulled up the previous NDA government for diversion of funds and incurring unauthorised expenditure of Rs 63.23 crore (Rs 632.3 billion) for the 'India Shining' media campaign.
Nirupam had filed a defamation case against Rai after the former CAG in his book in 2014 made the allegation against him and repeated it in interviews to the media.