"Before entering into any contract, the government will go through all details. We will assess the criticism, including that of CAG, on the issue. At present, the Gorshkov price escalation is in negotiation stage. Nothing has been finalised," Defence Minister A K Antony said during Question Hour.
"Our demand is that the PM and the government should resign. The CAG reports are not the only issue as there are so many complaints and cases of corruption. There are scams worth lakhs of crore of rupees but perpetrators are being protected. That is why we have decided that we will confront the government till the time it resigns and we will not stop," senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu told reporters outside Parliament.
Cairn India and UK's BG Group too replied to audit observations.
The PAC had called the chiefs of the three defence services for a hearing after a CAG report pointed out irregularities in the supply chain management of rations by Canteen Stores Department. Singh appeared before the PAC headed by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi at around 1100 hrs and senior Army officials made a presentation of management of rations in the Army.
Slamming the Defence Ministry over the nine-year delay in awarding contract to French firm Thales to build six Scorpene submarines in Mumbai, a Parliamentary Committee on Wednesday said the indecisiveness resulted in cost overruns and undue favour to the vendor, besides adversely impacting Navy's operational preparedness.
Centre objected to the review petition and said that the basic grounds for seeking review of the verdict are the same as they were in the main petition.
He replaced Vinod Rai, who superannuated on Wednesday after five-and-a-half years of eventful tenure as the head of CAG.
After a CAG report rapped the Delhi government for irregularities in CWG projects and dragged the prime minister's office in the 2G spectrum case, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday appeared all set to raise these issues in Parliament and even force adjournment of the two Houses.
With the exit of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader A Raja from the Union government in the wake of the massive telecom scam and President Pratibha Patil accepting his resignation late on Monday evening, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to table the CAG report on the 2G spectrum controversy in Parliament on Tuesday.
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.
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma said the parties shall file brief written submissions not exceeding five pages.
DoT though failed to implement TRAI's recommendations to levy spectrum usage charge
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.
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.
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.
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.
'Because of the callous attitude of the railway administration, they don't take care of safety.'
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.
IOA president P T Usha on Sunday slammed the revolting executive council members, saying they 'seem more focused on self-serving power play and monetary gain'
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 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.
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
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.
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.
Sources said former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for early passage of the bill in the Lok Sabha during the upcoming session as the same has already been passed by the Rajya Sabha.
In his letter to Modi, Kharge hit out at the railway minister for seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe, saying the law enforcement agency is meant to investigate crimes, not railway accidents.
Government auditor CAG also noted in a report that these demands are "unrealisable 100 per cent".
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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 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.
Apex auditor CAG on Friday lamented that private telecom operators are not providing their account books to it, despite a request from the government.
CAG audit is likely to be completed in six months.
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?".
