The United Progressive Alliance government in its robust defence has rubbished Comptroller and Auditor General's charges against the allotment of coal mines and its estimate of losses to the exchequer.
Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party paralyses Parliament on the allocation of coal blocks by the Centre, its own government in Chhattisgarh had come under attack from Comptroller and Auditor General for allocating coal blocks at 'abnormally low' rates that led to a loss of over Rs 1,052 crore.
The United Progressive Alliance is expected to put up a united face on Wednesday to counter opposition demand for resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the Comptroller and Auditor General reports on coal block allocation and two other issues.
Team Anna on Saturday clubbed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee with 13 other cabinet ministers, whom they accused of corruption, which the Congress dismissed as "unsubstantiated averments" that need not be responded to.
The Bharatiya Janata Partuy on Monday decided to aggressively demand the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the Comptroller and Auditor General report on the allocation of coal blocks and stall both Houses of Parliament on the issue on Tuesday.
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.
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.
Reliance Industries on Saturday said it had never contested the government's right to get the company's spending on KG-D6 gas fields audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General but hoped it will not be subjected to a performance audit."RIL has at no time contested the government's right to conduct an audit by any agency, including the CAG, as provided in Section 1.9 of the Accounting Procedure of the PSC," the company said in a statement on Saturday evening.
The auditor said that it has unfettered right of access to all records of Reliance Industries (RIL) during its audit of operations in the Krishna-Godavari basin and would override any conditions sought to be imposed on the process.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on Tuesday criticised the roles of the Department of Space and its former secretary, G Madhavan Nair, in the Antrix-Devas deal, saying the deal was a "classic case of public investment for private profit".
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India had called an Entry Conference with RIL and the Oil Ministry on Wednesday to begin its second round of audit that is to cover RIL's spending on KG-D6 gas fields during 2008-09 to 2011-12.
The committee has decided that access to 4G internet in J-K will be given in a calibrated manner and outcome of the trial will be reviewed after two months.
The CAG, in its report tabled in Parliament recently, had stated that the defence forces had ammunition that could last for 20 days in the event of a war, instead of the minimum requirement of 40 days.
Agrees with RIL's stand that CAG cannot do a performance audit of the company.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has pulled up Jammu and Kashmir forest ministry for allegedly diverting 1,883 hectares of forest land for non-forest purposes in violation of rules in Jammu district of the state.
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 erstwhile Bahujan Samaj Party government's decision to transfer over 500 acres of land to the Noida Authority in 2009 has resulted in a whopping Rs 2,600 crore loss to the state exchequer, the Comptroller General of India has pointed out.
The 61-year-old, who was administered the oath of office by Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal at a simple function in the Raj Bhavan, also said he wants to accelerate development in the union territory, carved out of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir last year.
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".
The minister also said that four cases of corruption in defence deals have been registered by the CBI since 2015.
The CAG's audit of hydropower projects seems to be an effort for status quo that does not do justice to the formidable reputation it has attracted through some of its exemplary work
Most senior scientists have complained of repeated questioning by the expenditure department, bureaucratic delays in clearances, more focus on procedure than on result and the lack of an environment for science to grow, reports Akshat Kaushal
With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declaring that he will quit public life if corruption allegations are proved against him, Team Anna on Wednesday demanded an independent probe into the charges, saying they will be most happy if these are proved wrong.
The CAG report had alleged the government had passed on financial gains of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to private companies by not auctioning the coal blocks.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley claimed on Thursday that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has to be directly blamed for the huge loss to the exchequer in allotment of coal mines. Swaraj said the PM can't be shielded behind ministers like A Raja or P Chidambaram as he did in the 2G spectrum scam.
"In the wake of the Wisconsin killings, which have shocked the national conscience, our City can enact meaningful inclusion of this community by changing NYPD rules to allow Sikhs to serve without having to forsake their turbans and beards," the New York City Comptroller John C Liu said in a letter to Bloomberg on Sunday
Politics over its critical reports on scams echoed in the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Comptroller and Auditor General on Wednesday when Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Public Accounts Committee Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi praised Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for defending both the CAG and the PAC when they came under attack.
Armed with the Comptroller and Auditor General report, opposition on Tuesday targeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over appointment of Suresh Kalmadi as Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief.
"When you start a prize with the Dalai Lama, how do you keep it going?" asked Thomas P DiNapoli, New York State comptroller, at the Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize event in New York, April 18.
With the Comptroller and Auditor General reportedly accusing Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit of irregularities in awarding certain Commonwealth Games contracts, the Delhi government on Wednesday stoutly rejected the allegations, saying she never "intervened to favour" any firm and all due processes were followed in finalising the contracts.
The 2G controversy rocked Parliament's Public Accounts Committee meeting in New Delhi on Monday with opposition parties demanding that former director general (Audit) R P Singh be summoned and asked why he differs with the Comptroller and Auditor General on the quantum of loss. With differences persisting, the meeting was adjourned. The meeting scheduled for Tuesday has also been postponed reportedly as Chhath festival falls on that day.
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.
Asking the Central Bureau of Investigation to respect the line that divides between policy making and policing, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday came down heavily on investigating agencies and Comptroller and Auditor General for "overstepping" their limits by attempting to convert bonafide executive decisions into either crimes or abuse of authority.
L&T has denied the charge and said the delay was entirely due to a dispute between Cidco and the railways.
This, said Sitharaman, would remove the possibility of unauthorised communication "and consequent harassment", which was a cause of concern for bankers.
Sandeep Dikshit, Congress Member of Parliament and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's son, on Tuesday attributed his party's defeat in the Delhi civic polls to a disconnect between the party and the people. He also claimed that an environment was created by reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare that made people believe the Congress was at the "centre of all the wrong" that was happening.
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.
Reacting to Comptroller and Auditor General reports on defence preparedness, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said that the army has been given World War II vintage "toy-guns" to fight nuclear powers, an issue the government is "diverting" attention from by raising the differences between the Army chief and the defence minister.
After conducting a few pilot studies, the government is in the process of introducing a new accounting system in a phased manner that would provide an effective way to track and assess assets created out of public money.
The new circular issued by the tax research unit of CBEC on June 19 says, "CAG would not be covered by the service head Business Support Service."
