The Comptroller and Auditor General has pulled up the Defence Research Development Organisation pointing out "deficiencies" and "procedural irregularities" committed by it in taking up new projects and splitting sanctions for them to bring it within financial powers of the organisation head.
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.
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.
"This is a big scam. The country is being looted. Please allow us to speak," Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.
The winter session of the Parliament will begin on November 22, it was officially announced on Friday.
'We don't have any agenda in that, there will be no discrimination against anyone. Constitution will be Gita in that'
No irregularities in farm debt waiver scheme: Pawar
Over the next five years, it will be Narendra not Nitish who will be under pressure to deliver vikas and atmanirbharta in Bihar, notes Kanika Datta.
Currently, the appointment is at he discretion of the Prime Minister. It needs to be more transparent and non-partisan.
The solicitor general said that the PM CARES Fund is a 'voluntary fund'. "It is a public trust. It is a body where you can make voluntary contributions and no budgetary allocations to the NDRF or SDRF are being touched. What has to be spent will be spent," the law officer said.
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.
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 bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir sought response from the Centre and the three intelligence wings for bringing the agencies under the oversight of Parliament and the Comptroller and Auditor General.
In its report tabled in Parliament, the national auditor said the Dassault Aviation and the MBDA proposed in September 2015 to discharge 30 per cent of their offset obligations by offering high technology to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), but the two firms are yet to do it.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would hear after two weeks the applications which have raised issues relating to the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The matter came up for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao.
The Public Accounts Committee of Delhi assembly has started examining the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the Commonwealth Games, which had indicted Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and her government for alleged irregularities in the implementation of various projects. In its first meeting on Tuesday, a number of senior officials from the public works department deposed before the nine-member PAC headed by senior Congress member Prahlad Singh Sawhney.
He also cautioned against politicisation of defence purchases, suggesting that this had earlier led to the delay in the army acquiring the Bofors gun.
Activist Arvind Kejriwal's allegations against Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid are based on an inspection report by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare on Sunday claimed to have sufficient proofs of alleged irregularities committed in the farmers' loan waiver scheme of the Centre which was brought out by a Comptroller and Auditor General report recently.
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.
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.
Armed with the Supreme Court observation, the government on Friday said constitutional authorities like the Comptroller and Auditor General should take note of the ruling that auction is not the only method for allocating natural resources.
It asks banks to take immediate action against officials responsible for lapses.
He replaced Vinod Rai, who superannuated on Wednesday after five-and-a-half years of eventful tenure as the head of CAG.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday took its grievances against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress-led United Progressive Alliance to President Pranab Mukherjee, demanding his intervention on the coal allocation issue and attacks on a constitutional institution like the Comptroller and Auditor General.
BCCI Apex Council will work on finalising India's revised Future Tours Program and the domestic season.
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.
The crucial service records of Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai are not traceable with the Personnel ministry, an RTI reply has revealed.
The sale will be quicker if an Indian private bank buys it; it will take longer for regulatory clearances if a foreign bank or an NBFC buys it, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
With the Comptroller and Auditor General reports providing ammunition to the Opposition to attack the prime minister, Congress on Friday dismissed Bharatiya Janata Party's demand for his resignation while party chief Sonia Gandhi held a "strategy meeting" with senior ministers and party leaders.
When he speaks of them, it is either in denial or to highlight successes that are only part of a larger story that is worrisome in its totality, observes T N Ninan.
The Delhi High Court-appointed observer Justice (Retd) Mukul Mudgal said that a former Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will look after the tender process for the fourth cricket Test between India and South Africa starting next month.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday questioned the safety of the Signature Bridge in East Delhi after the Comptroller and Auditor General objected to allowing use of pre-fabricated steel frames imported from China for its construction. "It is a serious issue that there is no mechanism with the Delhi Government to check the quality of material and fabrication work being done in China. This raises concern about the safety of the bridge," BJP leader Vijay Goel said.
Terming as "baseless innuendos" the allegations of fraud by her Trust, Law Minister Salman Khurshid's wife Louise launched a scathing attack on activist Arvind Kerjriwal, accusing him of "doing politics using the shoulders of the disabled". She also trashed speculation about her husband resigning over the issue, saying there is no reason why her husband should step down.
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.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said he intends to work with CAG to erase the impression of adversaries in an attempt to restore trust and confidence in all institutions.
Addressing a Comptroller and Auditor conference in New Delhi, Chidambaram said the official auditor and the government have been cast as adversaries to each other in the aftermath of recent audit findings.
Amid a war of words between the government and the opposition over the recent Comptroller and Auditor General reports, President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday cautioned that attempts by any organ of the state to overreach will unnecessarily lead to dissonance within the system.
A review of three years' audit reports of CAG showed that the state PSUs' losses of Rs 6,072.96 crore (Rs 60.72 billion) were 'controllable' with better management.
Newly appointed Comptroller and Auditor General Shashi Kant Sharma is is approachable and friendly, not forbidding, say his former colleagues.
