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.
He said the benchmark against which the auditors examine and assess the performance of the departments are not created by them, but by the government itself.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Friday targeted Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai suggesting he has a political agenda like one of his controversial predecessors T N Chaturvedi, who had given a report on Bofors issue and soon after joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, whose report on a presumed loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in 2G spectrum allocation created a storm in Parliament, will appear before the Public Accounts Committee on Monday.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, whose report on a presumed loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in 2G spectrum allocation created a storm in Parliament, will appear before the Public Accounts Committee on Monday.
Outgoing Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai on Tuesday dismissed charges that he was behind the leak of controversial audit reports on 2G spectrum and coal block allocations.
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.
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.
Former CAG Vinod Rai said he will not take a single rupee in remuneration from the government for his work.
Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai on Saturday said that he did not foresee any dilution in the powers of CAG if the organisation is converted into a multi-member body.
As industrialist Vijay Mallya fights his wilful defaulter tag, former CAG Vinod Rai has said Kingfisher Airlines' loan default is just a "trickle" and the overall problem of huge bad loans at public sector banks can be blamed on 'cronies' using connections to borrow money.
Attacking the Congress over former Comptroller Auditor General Vinod Rai's claims, Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said the opposition party stood "exposed" and demanded that the identity of leaders who "approached him" to drop names of those involved in scams during the United Progressive Alliance regime be revealed.
Edulji and former CAG Rai often disagreed publicly on key issues, most notably over the appointment of national coaches, both men and women.
Having cut off the "umbilical cord" that tied him to the Board, the former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) spoke to PTI on a range of issues from "giving a free hand" to the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri duo, Anil Kumble's exit as national coach, his frosty relationship with colleague Diana Edulji, sexual harassment allegations against BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and difficulties in implementing the Supreme Court-mandated Lodha recommendations.
The Kerala High Court, on Monday sought the Board of Control for Cricket in India's stand on a plea by cricketer Shanthakumaran Sreesanth challenging the life ban imposed upon him by the game's governing body after detection of the 2013 Indian Premier League-6 spot-fixing scandal.
Unfazed by the delaying tactics adopted by the members of the Board of Control for Cricket in India at its last SGM, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators has strengthened its resolve to implement the mandate given to them by the apex court.
With his new book creating a major controversy, former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai on Tuesday said he has nothing personal against former prime minister Manmohan Singh, but all the "acclaim and the blame" has to be taken by the head of the government.
With over half the Plan funds that Parliament approves being spent through non-government channels, to cite the figure in CAG Vinod Rai's presentation to the Planning Commission, members of the Parliament have no way of knowing whether the money is properly spent.
After the flop 2G spectrum auction that yielded only Rs 9,407 crore, government and the Congress on Thursday questioned the Comptroller and Auditor General's estimated loss of Rs.1.76 lakh crore in the spectrum allocation of 2001, drawing fire from the opposition. Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari led the government attack by asking CAG Vinod Rai why the spectrum auction had not yielded anything close to the loss it had estimated.
The Comptroller and Auditor General on Tuesday declined to join a public debate on the controversies over its findings on the coal blocks allocation, which have come under attack from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Congress and critics.
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has sent a missive to the Comptroller and Auditor General, expressing concern over delayed audit reports adversely affecting the flagship National Rural Drinking Water Programme. In a personal letter to CAG Vinod Rai, he has drawn attention to the ministry not being able to release funds to the states as they are not submitting audits of accounts of grants-in-aid along with the utilisation certificates.
Against the backdrop of dispute over figures of presumptive loss in 2G spectrum allocation, the Comptroller and AG has said the draft report which had put Rs 2,645 crore as one of the loss figures could not "conclusively" bring out the potential loss and merely highlighted "possibilities."
Amid the storm over alleged kickbacks in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai on Friday said an audit of the controversial deal is under progress and a report would be released soon.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh took a dig at Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai on Thursday asking why does he not stop leak of reports from his office, a day after the latter deprecated the "brazenness" with which the decisions were being taken by the government.
Vinod Rai, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India till May and probably the most talked-about government official in the last few years, participated in a Live Chat with readers of Rediff.com on Friday.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is under fire from the former CAG Vinod Rai over the 2G spectrum scam and Coalgate, said he has done his "duty" and refused to respond to charges levelled against him.
Defending the proactive approach of the CAG, Rai emphasised that the job of the public auditor was also to ensure that executive and the government are held financially accountable to legislature.
With Digvijay Singh causing a flutter by targeting Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai and suggesting that he has a political agenda, the government on Friday said there was no need for Constitutional authorities to be "touchy and sensitive" about criticism.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi who heads the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament has said that the prime minister's offer to depose before the committee is being considered. Joshi said that the Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai had not been summoned, but was a partt of the committee's proceedings.
The Committee of Administrators (COA) wants BCCI to appoint an Ombudsman and an Ethics Officer at the earliest to deal with any disputes leading up to its much-awaited Annual General Meeting and elections.
Currently, the appointment is at he discretion of the Prime Minister. It needs to be more transparent and non-partisan.
The fresh remarks made by Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai against the UPA dispensation Friday triggered a war of words, with the government attacking him and the opposition throwing its weight behind him.
Taking potshots at Vinod Rai over his comment that placing reports in Parliament can't be the Comptroller and Auditor General's only role, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Friday asked whether the former intended to become the country's prime minister, if not an accountant.
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.
The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) will demit office after the BCCI AGM here on Wednesday, ending a tumultuous 33-month tenure.
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".
He replaced Vinod Rai, who superannuated on Wednesday after five-and-a-half years of eventful tenure as the head of CAG.
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