Reliance Industries has accused CAG of exceeding its brief in the audit of spending on eastern offshore KG-D6 block saying hindsight is being used to question operational decisions taken 8 years back.
The CAG report noted that availability of 55 per cent types of ammunitions was below minimum inescapable requirement to be maintained for operational preparedness and 40 per cent types of ammunitions were in critical level, having stock of less than 10 days.
The Comptroller and Auditor General on Monday said that the audit of certain activities of Department of Space were under way but made it clear that media reports on alleged scam in a deal between ISRO and a private firm cannot be concluded as its "findings".
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.
'They will be able to ride over this immediate crisis and carry on, but they need to take corrective steps and these will have to be long term measures which must include working closely with state governments.'
CAG, in a report tabled in Parliament today, said Oil and Natural Gas Corporation hired rig 'Actinia' from RIL for six months in 2009 for Rs 146.71 crore (Rs 1.46 billion) saying it needed urgently drill three wells but its actual usage indicated the hiring was 'not necessary'.
The PSC provides for a financial audit -- checking of the contractor's accounts in order to verify the charges and credits, but not a performance audit that scrutinises efficacies of processes or technology used in the complex deep sea operations.
The Comptroller and Auditor General report for 2008, released in New Delhi, also questioned the prudence of the Ministry in buying the second-hand Russian warship, which now comes at 'half its life-span and about "60 per cent more expensive' than a new aircraft carrier.
Pro-BJP forces, unable to tolerate Udhayanidhi's stance against oppressive principles, have spread a false narrative, alleging he called for the genocide of people with Sanatan thoughts, Stalin said in a statement and wondered why Prime Minister Narendra Modi would also join those targeting the Tamil Nadu minister.
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.
Flaying post-bid concessions to Reliance Power, the CAG on Friday said the Anil Ambani-led firm got undue benefit of Rs 29,033 crore (Rs 290.33 billion) when the government allowed use of surplus coal from blocks alloted to Sasan power plant for its other projects.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday said that he meant no disrespect to any institution by his comments on the CAG report on 2G scam, but maintained that "canards" had to be responded to.
Slamming Congress for trying to "weaken" Comptroller and Auditor General by making it a multi-member body, the Baratiya Janata Party on Monday warned that any such move would only 'boomerang' on the party.
The govt auditor also indicts DGH and management committee of D1 and D3 fields
Amidst Opposition ruckus in Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday asserted that the observations of the CAG on the allocation of coal blocks were clearly disputable.
It came under severe criticism from the CAG on Friday as it pointed out that its Mark-I version has 53 'significant shortfalls'.
The Comptroller and Auditor General on Friday rapped space agency Indian Space Research Organisation for allowing a foreign private satellite service provider to park its satellite in an orbit slot meant for Indian satellites in violation of nation's SATCOM policy and extending "undue benefit" to a foreign firm.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is under fire from the former CAG Vinod Rai over the 2G spectrum scam and Coalgate, said he has done his "duty" and refused to respond to charges levelled against him.
Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai on Wednesday rejected reports that there was pressure from Parliament's Public Accounts Committee chairman Murli Manohar Joshi to expedite audit work of 2G spectrum allocation and said no findings were ever shared with the PAC.
West Bengal lost Rs 546.68 crore (Rs 5.46 billion) in 2007-08 for not having its own fiscal responsibility law, which mandates fiscal discipline, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has sent a missive to the Comptroller and Auditor General, expressing concern over delayed audit reports adversely affecting the flagship National Rural Drinking Water Programme. In a personal letter to CAG Vinod Rai, he has drawn attention to the ministry not being able to release funds to the states as they are not submitting audits of accounts of grants-in-aid along with the utilisation certificates.
Retirement fund body EPFO paid lesser amount as interest on PF deposits of over five crore subscribers than its earnings between 2007-08 and 2010-11, government auditor CAG has said.
The apex auditor is busy preparing a report on the Air India-Indian Airlines merger and modernisation of airports through public-private-partnerships, both carried out during the previous term of the United Progressive Alliance government.
Seeking to corner the government over the CAG report on coal block allocation, the Bharatiya Janata Party is understood to have reached out to key UPA constituent Trinamool Congress.
The list includes CAG's request dated July 2, 2012 for information on award of contract for laying of a 1,395-km pipeline by Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd for shipping KG-D6 gas from east coast to the west.
Rejecting Team Anna's allegations of corruption against him, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday declared he will quit public life if the charges on coal block allotments are proved.
In 11 out of 29 coal mines successfully e-auctioned, a number of qualified bidders in the e-auction stage were from the same company/parent subsidiary company coalition/joint venture, CAG said.
The civil aviation ministry initiated and then made a mess of the merger of the erstwhile Indian Airlines with Air India, according to a Comptroller and Auditor General report.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has pulled up leading public sector undertakings for glaring lapses in balance sheets, saying assets were overstated by Rs 377.43 crore (Rs 3.77 billion) in four Navratna companies including SAIL.
Watch Live! Jaiswal and Chidambaram's press conference on the coal scam
The comments by a former official of the Comptroller and Auditor General over the report on 2G spectrum allocation on Friday kicked up a row with Congress President Sonia Gandhi suggesting that the Bharatiya Janata Party had been exposed while the government demanded answers from Parliament's PAC chief M M Joshi over his alleged role.
The company's accounts were audited by CAG as its shareholders include public sector banks.
The Congress, which was not a petitioner before the apex court, wants the Rafale deal to be referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee to go into the price arrived at by the BJP government versus the one negotiated by the previous UPA regime, as also how billionaire Anil Ambani's group with virtually no experience in manufacture of fighter jets was selected as an offset partner for the deal.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Sunday said that a Comptroller Auditor General inquiry should be conducted into expenditure made during Maha Kumbh Mela at Allahabad.
A CAG report severely criticises the movie certification body for fabrication of documents and showing bias while issuing film certificates.
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.
CAG has said the government suffered a presumptive loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore (Rs 1.86 trillion) in coal block allocations during 2004-2008, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held the coal portfolio.
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.
According to a 2010 CAG report on warship building, this year the navy will have just 44 per cent of the destroyers it needs; 61 per cent of the frigates; and 20 per cent of its requirement of corvettes, reports Ajai Shukla.
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.
