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.
Demanding an inquiry into the purchase of 111 new aircraft by national carrier Air India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said the proposal was the root cause of the airline's financial woes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said data is information and it will dictate history in the future as he exhorted for strong and scientific audits to make systems strong and transparent. Speaking at the Audit Diwas event of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), he said in the past information was transmitted in form of stories.
In popular perception, the villain of the piece is former civil aviation minister Praful Patel.
The ministry of home affairs has suspended the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licence of prominent public think-tank Centre for Policy Research (CPR) over violation of laws, officials said on Thursday.
The defence ministry's new procurement policy is causing delays.
It said Air India "accepted" that though the number of flights from Delhi "increased substantially.
The case was registered against the veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader by Lokayukta police in 2015 based on the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
The Bhartiya Janata Party on Saturday disputed the expenditure amount for the 'India Shining' media campaign.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday claimed a senior railway official had flagged a fault in the signal interlocking system in February and warned of the train accident risk but the problem was not rectified which led to the Balasore train crash.
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.
In a serious data breach, personally identifiable information of 815 million Indians has been up on the dark web for sale, according to a report by US-based cybersecurity firm Resecurity. Details such as Aadhaar and passport information along with names, phone numbers and addresses are available for sale online, it has said.
Delhi faces a severe financial crunch and the deficit is largely due to numerous welfare schemes without adequate revenue flowing in. The success of welfare schemes and electoral promises will need careful financial planning and out of the box thinking to whip up additional revenue, notes Ramesh Menon.
According to an interim report of the government audit body, the loss should have been Rs 8,589.1 crore (Rs 85.89 billion), instead of Rs 5,551 crore (Rs 55.51 billion) as has been shown in the account books, sources said.
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.
Cancellation of 2G licenses by the Supreme Court clearly revealed a big scam and it was a "collective failure" of the government which "overlooked" warnings given by the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Central Vigilance Commissioner on the issue, Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy said on Thursday. "Everyone had warned, including the CAG and the CVC, but the government overlooked it," Swamy said soon after the Supreme Court cancelled the 122 spectrum licenses.
It asks banks to take immediate action against officials responsible for lapses.
Government auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General has found that not all disease outbreaks and chemical accidents taking place in different parts of the country are reported to Central authorities which could effect the response to epidemics.
Government auditor CAG has rapped five regulators, including Sebi, Irda and PNGRB, for keeping their surplus funds worth over Rs 2,142 crore collected through fee and penalty outside the government accounts.
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.
Cairn India and UK's BG Group too replied to audit observations.
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.
All set for more public interactions even as PM has been critical of the apex auditor recently.
Apex auditor CAG on Friday lamented that private telecom operators are not providing their account books to it, despite a request from the government.
India discard Virender Sehwag scored a breezy 48 off just 20 balls as CAG (Comptroller &Auditor General of India) were involved in a tie with Mumbai Customs, in a concluding Group C league match of the Rs 12 lakh tenth All India Dr D.Y. Patil T20 Cup, organised by the D.Y Patil Sports Academy, under the auspices of the Mumbai Cricket Association, at the D Y Patil Stadium, in Nerul, Mumbai, on Wednesday.
Mehrishi has emerged as the top choice for the post, the sources said, adding a formal order on this is expected soon.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India report for 2010-11 on direct taxes, tabled in Parliament on Friday, revealed that 958 lakh (95.8 million) PANs were issued up to March 2010 but IT returns filed in the last fiscal were only 340.9 lakh (34.09 million).
Report says ineligible farmers given benefits.
Dismissing DAE's reply that most of the items were working satisfactorily, CAG said the department should have analysed all the aspects before ordering for the equipment.
More than a year after the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) tabled the coal block allocation report in Parliament, indicting the government for a notional loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore while allocating coal blocks, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed 14 First Information Reports (FIRs) against private sector companies, and more are in the offing.
In its communication to DoT, the DGA said the department had granted new unified access service licences to certain companies without proper verification of their eligibility and other credentials.
The Comptroller & Auditor General of India has castigated the Maharashtra government for alleged irregularities in the sale and allotment of land in the past eight years, resulting in loss to the exchequer.
Niira Radia had said friends in high places enabled favourable EGoM decision on Sasan coal diversion, a charge staunchly denied by Reliance Power.
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.
With CAG alleging that Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries was delaying furnishing of records for audit, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily on Friday said there was no problem and "everybody" was cooperating.
A fresh public interest litigation was Monday filed in the Supreme Court claiming that the appointment of Shashi Kant Sharma as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India was arbitrary and made without any transparency.
CPI(M) Rajya Sabha Tapan Sen, in an interview to Rediff.com, explains what he believes are the irregularities committed by Reliance Industries and how UPA government has allowed it to get away with it.
He replaced Vinod Rai, who superannuated on Wednesday after five-and-a-half years of eventful tenure as the head of CAG.
More than 120 eminent citizens, including retired high court judges and former bureaucrats, have written to President Droupadi Murmu opposing what they called "highly objectionable attempts" to legalise same-sex marriages.
Communist party of India-Marxist leader Brinda Karat on Sunday said the letter from the Prime Minister's Office to Team Anna defending corruption allegations against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh does not give any clarity on the matter.