The turf war over 2G Scam inquiry has refused to die down with the Joint Parliamentary Committee planning to discuss on Thursday whether the Public Accounts Committee, chaired by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi, has gone beyond its mandate.
As CAG found Reliance Industries was being favoured in gas exploration deal to the government's detriment, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the then top auditor Vinod Rai that audit should not hurt the private sector and RIL was one of the biggest and most respected.
While the Management Committee of KG-D6 block in August agreed to approval of capital spending plans pending for past three years, the resolution has so far not been signed.
The government has paid commitment charges of Rs 86.11 crore (Rs 861.1 million) during 2009-10 in the form of penalty for not timely utilising the aid approved by multilateral and bilateral lending agencies.
It is also understood that scope of this audit will far exceed the normal course of audit by CAG and the prime objective may be to detect fraud, if any, by RIL allegedly in collusion with oil regulator DGH and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
A Congress minister has defended the former Ghulam Nabi Azad-led Congress government in Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of the Comptroller and Auditor General's disclosure that it framed rules in violation of the Roshni Act under a Rs 25,000 crore land-transfer scam.
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.
'We don't know how and why this happened as the route interlock signal works fine millions of times every day across India.'
The Opposition MLAs and MLCs said they would continue their dharna in both the Houses till their demand is met, apparently taking a cue from the Karnataka Opposition members, who were on a five-day-long dharna in the state assembly demanding CBI probe into the alleged illegal mining in the state.
In the backdrop of the Supreme Court's remarks on delay by the prime minister in acting on plea for sanction of prosecution of A Raja in 2G spectrum case, Congress on Wednesday said it was "wrong and unfair" to say Manmohan Singh has not taken action against the former telecom minister.
Comptroller and Auditor General of India V N Kaul said on Monday that there was a need to review government accounting system for bringing in transparency
ONGC, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil and Oil India listed the spending as part of their mandatory CSR commitment, but CAG noted that the Sardar Patel statue did not qualify for CSR funding.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will start the audit work of Commonwealth Games Village in New Delhi from October 28 to probe allegations of financial irregularities.
Government auditor CAG also noted in a report that these demands are "unrealisable 100 per cent".
Softening its stand on CAG audit, Reliance Industries has agreed to a scrutiny of its expenses in the flagging KG-D6 gas block by the official auditor even after expiry of the contractual period.
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.
Terming the move for getting of a "large number" of planes as "risky", the CAG said the aircraft acquisition had "contributed predominantly" to the airline's massive debt liability of Rs 38,423 crore (Rs 384.23 billion) as on March 31 last year.
"The fact of the matter is we need policies in place. There are no policies in place to ensure that spectrum is adequately and effectively used. There are no policies in place for audit for companies that actually buy spectrum. We must put in place (policies) to ensure that there is spectrum sharing, spectrum trading," Telecom minister Kapil Sibal said at the FICCI Annual General Meeting.
From the voter-level, traditionally anti-BJP, anti-Hindutva minorities and other secular voters would have an option, especially in the face of the mounting anti-incumbency against the ruling party -- as it happened in the 2001 assembly polls, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) is expected to complete the special audit of the accounts of KG Basin oil and gas fields of Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) by February next year, a top official said.
India's mainstream naval fighter jet plane MiG-29K faces operational deficiencies due to defects in engines, airframe and fly-by-wire system leading to very low availability.
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.
CAG audit is likely to be completed in six months.
Apex auditor CAG on Friday lamented that private telecom operators are not providing their account books to it, despite a request from the government.
The shoe flung from the opposition benches fell just short of where Majithia was seated. Protesting Congress MLAs also threw documents including pages from some CAG reports at the speaker, who had to be protected by House staff.
The Union Government has forgone a whopping Rs 39,704 crore (Rs 397.04 billion) duty under export promotion schemes during 2003-04, accounting for 82 per cent of customs duty collected in that year, a CAG report has said.
Agitated over its finding in the coal mine allocation issue, Congress on Monday targeted the Comptroller and Auditor General again by utilising the opinion of the Supreme Court on the 2G spectrum issue. Noting certain observations of the apex court in the 2G case, spokesperson Manish Tewari said, "If the Supreme Court can be so circumspect in its observations, is it not essential that other constitutional bodies, especially the CAG, should follow suit?".
The company had initially objected to audit by CAG for time barred years as per Production Sharing Contract and had not accepted the 'exceptional circumstances' advanced by the ministry
With audits being taken up in a host of areas including private firms now, the process demands trained manpower.
The airline had leased a 0.58 acre plot from the British Airport Authority in 1968 for over 50 years till 2019 for use as a warehouse to handle its cargo at the airport.
In line with the recommendations of the 12th and 13th Finance Commissions and the second Administrative Reforms Commission, the operational guidelines suggest shifting from the present cash-based accounting system to an accrual basis of accounting.
In their review plea, they alleged that the judgment "relied upon patently incorrect claims made by the government in an unsigned note given in a sealed cover" to the apex court.
Faulty laws helped oil majors IOC, HPCL and BPCL -- to avoid excise payment of Rs 713 crore (Rs 7.13 billion) to the government during April-December 2002, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has said.
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).
The examination was scheduled to start at 1400 IST at 50 centres all over the country.
The move is significant as it would extend the power of CAG -- set up to audit central and state government departments as well as PSUs -- to private sector companies.
Report says ineligible farmers given benefits.
The Supreme Court had cancelled 204 such allotments.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, which had at the end of its first sitting with RIL in January suspended the audit of spending on the flagging KG-D6 block following differences with RIL over scope and extent of the scrutiny, is likely to resume it next two weeks.
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