Disagreements over scope of audit cropped up on the very first day the Comptroller and Auditor General of India began to the second round of audit of spendings on eastern offshore KG-D6 fields with RIL alleging that the auditor was not confirming if the accounts scrutiny would be as per the provisions enshrined in the Production Sharing Contact.
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.
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.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Saturday charged the Centre with attacking constitutional institutions working in the interest of the people and said it was harmful for the nation.
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
Vicky Nanjappa accessed the CAG report on illegal mining in Karnataka and finds out that the in the face of losses worth thousands of crores, the state administration had only been able to recover just Rs 7.22 crore
The Comptroller and Auditor General can do a performance audit of production sharing contracts
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.
Against the backdrop of claims made by a former Comptroller and Auditor General official on its report on 2G spectrum, the government on Monday favoured a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the "serious" matter.
Former Comptroller and Auditor General official R P Singh, who has stirred a controversy, has rejected the allegations that the Congress has put him up to defend the government on the audit report on 2G spectrum allocation which had estimated the presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore.
The Shunglu Committee has faulted the sacked chief of Commonwealth Games organising body Suresh Kalmadi and his aides over award of contracts saying there was "extreme concentration of powers at the top" and "conflict of interest" among the organising committee officials.
Amid allegations and counter-allegations over the Comptroller and Auditor General's figure of presumptive losses in 2G allocation, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Saturday demanded that the CAG explain the issue to clear the air over the matter.
United Progressive Alliance key ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Monday strongly pitched for a multi-member Comptroller and Auditor General, saying the recent flopped auction of 2G spectrum that netted only about Rs 9,000 crore had proved wrong the top auditors' report pegging the presumptive loss in 2G allocation at Rs 1.76 lakh crore.
After attacking the Comptroller and Auditor General, Union Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy Sunday demanded an apology from Bharatiya Janata Party for "misleading" the people that the 2G spectrum allocation in 2008 had resulted in a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.
In an interview with CNN-IBN's National Bureau Chief Bhupendra Choubey, Public Accounts Committee Chairman Murali Manohar Joshi talks about the probe into the 2G spectrum scam and the government's flip flop on Comptroller and Auditor General report. Following is the transcript of the interview
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.
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.
This alternative is being planned as the existing projects continue to be delayed due to land acquisition troubles. The ministry is thinking of adding new track lines to its existing eastern and western DFCs passing major areas in the proposed stretches, senior officials said.
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 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.
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.
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.
A high level committee, which went into alleged financial irregularities in Commonwealth Games, has strongly indicted suspended Prasar Bharti CEO B S Lalli and Doordarshan Director General Aruna Sharma, accusing them of "collusion" with a UK-based firm which benefited Rs 135 crore in the broadcast deal.
Slamming the Navy for finalising a deal for MiG 29K naval fighter aircraft without their weapons package, a Comptroller and Auditor General report Thursday said the maritime force has now chosen a missile with an "unsatisfactory track record" in the Indian Air Force.
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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday cornered the government for 'defending' Chief Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas in the Supreme Court, asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi as to what was the 'compulsion' to defend the 'tainted' official and attack the upright comptroller and auditor general.
An initial audit report estimating Rs 10.67 lakh crore loss to the exchequer on account of allotment of coal blocks during 2004 to 2009 without auction caused an uproar in the Parliament and was described as "exceedingly misleading" by the CAG himself.
Taking note of the draft report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on allotment of coal blocks without auction, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the allotment of coal blocks and monitoring of the probe by a court.
Gautam Adani's alleged proximity to Narendra Modi may dent the latter's self-styled image of incorruptibility, points out Kanika Datta.
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".
Holding that the Adarsh Housing scam was a classic case of fence eating the crops and 'consistent failure' of Centre and Maharashtra government, the Comptroller and Auditor General on Tuesday said rules were bent to benefit relatives of politicians, public servants and senior service officers including former Army chiefs Gen Deepak Kapoor and N C Vij.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday sharpened its attack against Sports Minister Ajay Maken for allegedly misleading the Lok Sabha on appointment of Suresh Kalmadi as Commonwealth Games organising Committee head, saying the Comptroller and Auditor General report makes it clear that prime minister's office responsible for it.
Defending Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit over her indictment in the recently published report of Comptroller and Auditor General of India on irregularities observed in Commonwealth Games, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has said the party has decided not to take any action against her.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has constituted a ministerial panel, headed by Defence Minister A K Antony, to examine the findings of the Shunglu Committee that probed alleged irregularities in conduct of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi last year.
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
In further embarrassment to Congress, the Comptroller and Auditor General is understood to have rapped the Sheila Dikshit government in Delhi for irregularities in certain contracts related to the Commonwealth Games.
The government on Friday asked the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to suggest ways to curb its rising subsidy bill on food, fertiliser and petroleum products without hurting the targetted population.
The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has pulled up the company secretaries of two telecom companies whose names have been mentioned in the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG's) report on the controversial allotment of airwaves. The two officials named in the report are Hari Nair, representing Swan Telecom, and Vidyadhar Chakradeo, the company secretary of Loop Telecom.
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.