Post JPC grilling, CAG Rai’s reports on S-Band, UMPP may become harsher

Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) and 1972 batch IAS Vinod Rai’s tough posture during his interaction with JPC members has indicated more trouble for the government. The CAG, whose report on telecom auctioning unearthed what’s now called 2G scam, may take on the government in audits of the Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP), S-Band spectrum and Padma awards which are now being undertaken. According to some media reports, audits on S-Band spectrum may embarrass none other than India’s Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh criticized the CAG for entering into the policy space, Rai reportedly toned down the language of the next few reports. The CAG report on Air India, for example, was carefully drafted. Unlike the reports on 2G Spectrum and Commonwealth Games, there are no instances in the report on Air India which would even remotely suggest that the CAG entered into the policy domain. According to a media report, the draft on Air India’s audit included expressions such as “government nudged”, “loss” etc., which were later deleted in the final report. Similarly, his report on KG Basin dragging India’s most powerful corporate group Reliance Industries, was not that harsh either. Here too, CAG did not put any figure of the loss to the exchequer which would have been a headline.

But things may no longer be the same now. After Rai was grilled and almost humiliated by the Congress members of the JPC, there is a strong possibility that he takes on the government again. For the government, it’s a matter of concern as no one knows whether CAG would put an estimated loss to the exchequer in reports on Ultra Mega Power Projects and S-Band spectrum too. Corporate groups like Tata and Anil Ambani-promoted ADAG were awarded Ultra Mega Power Projects.

Rai now wants more power to be given to the CAG to audit the entire Plan expenditure. While talking the CAG’s 150th year celebrations on Wednesday, Rai urged the government to give it the auditing power of projects under public private partnership and other private projects where the government has a stake.

Why Sushil Modi wants CAG to be multi-member?

Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said that the office of the CAG should grow in tandem with the changing times, referring to the fact that it’s 150 years old. The BJP man in Nitish Kumar’s government wants CAG be a multi-member institution. But why is Modi angry with CAG while all his senior colleagues in the party including Murli Manohar Joshi are happy with Rai. Is it the CAG’s catch on AC-DC bills issue, Mr Modi?

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What transpired in PM-Shunglu meet? Panel members to be named this week

THE exact terms and references, and also the members of the VK Shunglu panel, investigating alleged financial irregularities in just-concluded Delhi Commonwealth Games, are likely to be announced this week. The broad consensus took place when Shunglu, a former CAG, met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday. Principal adviser to PM, TKA Nair and cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar were also present during the meeting. According to reports, Shunglu had a preliminary meeting with Nair to finalize the broad contours of the probe before he met with the PM.

India’s largest opposition party, BJP, wants Shunglu committee to probe the alleged role of PMO in addition to demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate the matter. BJP president Nitin Gadkari had earlier said in a press conference that he had enough evidences to substantiate his claim that PMO too had a role in the scam, but his comments were widely criticized by analysts as “irresponsible”.

Shunglu committee has been asked to submit its report in three months. A number of government agencies including CVC, CBI, ED and the Income Tax department have launched their independent investigations once the Games were over.

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Mayawati doles out Diwali bonanza to UP employees

It’s party time in UP as chief minister Mayawati has announced a bonus equivalent to one months’ pay for a section of state employees for the financial year 09-10. But this order won’t make all employees happy as only permanent non-gazetted state employees, teachers of aided schools and technical institutes, local bodies and zila panchayats etc. would get the bonus. Even they have to fulfill a few conditions listed out by the state government to make themselves eligible for the bonus payouts.