What Vinod Rai’s book says about bureaucrats: Pulok Chatterji, Vini Mahajan, TKA Nair, PJ Thomas, Sunil Arora etc.

Rai with wife

1980 batch IAS officer Sunil Arora is an “outstanding officer”.
Former principal secretary to PM TKA Nair was a “priest” in the PMO. 
Former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai’s book “Not Just An Accountant” has a few interesting anecdotes about men who mattered in corridors of power. Here are about 7 of them:

Any guess on UPA ministers, bureaucrats who requested Vinod Rai to drop names from CAG reports?

THIS photo shows former Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Vinod Rai (standing left) with three UPA ministers: P Chidambaram, Pawan Kumar Bansal and SS Palanimanickam (of the DMK). Rai was the then the banking secretary, and he posed for this official photo ahead of one of Chidambaram’s budgets during UPA-I. Bansal and Palanimanickam were then the MoS, Finance, and in hierarchy Rai was junior to all those three ministers. But days before the release of his supposedly tell-all book, “Not Just An Accountant”, speculations have risen about the names of the UPA ministers who had visited his home with a request to…

How CAG Vinod Rai is of some help to the UPA government in Court

1972 BATCH retired IAS and Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai might have given sleepless nights to the government umpteen times, but Rai is of some help to the UPA government when its Attorney General GE Vahanwati dismissed an argument in Supreme Court that “loyal” bureaucrats are being appointed as information commissioners. The government’s top law officer referred to Rai’s example when...

Ambani’s Reliance Industries, black gold in KG Basin & 2 ex-bureaucrats

BP CEO Robert Dudley with Mukesh Ambani in Sep 2011

THE Reliance Industries Ltd, the most valued private sector company in India, has said it welcomes any form of audit by Comptroller and Auditor General of India, something the Mukesh Ambani-owned company was not very comfortable about, even a fortnight ago. But here is how two former bureaucrats became the game-changers by rewriting the traditional rules of keeping a safe distance from the high and mighty of the corporate India.

BoI Power List, 2012: Mr Investigator is 3rd Most Powerful Bureaucrat

Rai (Left) with CBI Director AP Singh

WITH high-voltage corruption cases being probed across the country, India’s investigators continue to be a highly powerful breed of bureaucrats. Directly or indirectly, the investigators are inspired by auditor Vinod Rai who took on the Prime Minister’s Office to give a subtle message that independent authorities should be fearless, and must not buckle under political pressure. Rai, who was BoI’s most powerful bureaucrat in 2011, has lost his earlier sheen as the same “formula of presumptive losses” may not always work. But BoI has…

5 Indian Bureaucrats Around 2G Spectrum: Good, Bad and Ugly...

A DAY after the Supreme Court gave a monumental verdict and cancelled all 122 telecom licenses awarded by A Raja and his team, BoI (babusofindia.com) has identified 5 bureaucrats who played as hero, villain and supporting roles in this multi-billion dollar telecom saga.

Manju Madhavan: The Officer Who Flagged the 2G Scam

In this maze of billion dollar 2G spectrum scam, here is a bureaucrat who remained an unsung hero. She is 1971 batch Indian Revenue Service officer Manju Madhavan who reportedly flagged the 2G scam. Known to be an upright officer Ms Madhavan resigned as Member (Finance), department of telecom after getting upset with her minister A Raja. A doctorate in psychology, Ms Madhavan attended a programme on fiscal de-centralization and financial management of regional and local governments at Harvard University, and then a management development programme at IIM, Bangalore.
Also Read

The Bureaucrat Who Spotted the Scam

Vinod Rai: The Man Who Scripted a Disaster for UPA-II

Had this 1972 batch retired IAS not given a controversial tag of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the 2G spectrum scam, it would have probably been kept under the wraps. But Vinod Rai, who was incidentally appointed as Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) just a day before 2G licences were announced, decided to take on everyone to unravel the 2G truth. And he continued his crusade despite being a target at many forums including JPC. Rai in another report even dragged the PMO for the Commonwealth Games fiasco.
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Rai's Closed-Door Conclave at Shimla

Siddharth Behura: Signatory of a Monumental Mistake?

Siddharth Behura, who as the telecom secretary signed the controversial 2G licenses announced on January 8, 2008, was incidentally a key officer responsible for the liberalization of the industrial sector in India way back in 1991. But today, he is infamous for his alleged role in doling out licences to ineligible telecom companies which the Supreme Court finally struck down. The 1973 batch UP cadre IAS who was with environment ministry between 2005 and 2007 when A Raja was the environment minister, said he had no option but to implement the minister’s decision. “The relationship between the minister and secretary is a very tenuous one”, Behura had earlier told a daily. But he was arrested in February 2011, and had remained in Tihar jail for nearly one year.
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Behura: From Team Manmohan to Team Raja

RK Chandolia: A Private Affair

RK Chandolia, a 1984 batch Indian Economic Service officer, is one of many officers of elite IAS and allied services of Indian administration who have served as private secretaries to ministers. Nothing unusual about it considering ministers always handpick one of their trusted officers as private secretaries. But he came under the CBI net after his boss A Raja who is still languishing at Tihar jail, became the main accused in the 2G scam. Chandolia may now be out in bail, but the case against him is still on.
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Dos and Don’ts for a Minister’s Private Secretary

Shyamal Ghosh: A Shocker After 9 Years

Nine years after he retired as telecom secretary, 1965 batch Gujarat cadre IAS Shyamal Ghosh woke up in one fine morning in November last year to find CBI sleuths knocking at his home in New Delhi. The reason? The investigating agency wanted to raid the residence of Ghosh who was telecom secretary when BJP leader Pramod Mahajan was the minister. The CBI believes that the policy of allotting airwaves in 2002 led to the loss of Rs 508 crore to the exchequer. There were raids in offices of telecom majors, Airtel and Vodafone, which are the supposed beneficiaries of NDA’s telecom policies.
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Ghosh: Was He BJP’s Behura?

Has CAG Vinod Rai saved his ex-boss Chidambaram by dropping Padma audit?

CAG Vinod Rai

Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai, who took a hawkish stand against the government policies both in 2G spectrum allocations and Commonwealth Games, decided not to enter into the policy turf this time and dropped the move to audit Padma Awards selection. Had Rai, a 1972 batch IAS officer, allowed Director General Audit Central Expenditure (DGACE) Roy S Mathrani to carry on the Padma audit, it would have been embarrassing for home minister P Chidambaram who was Rai’s boss when Chidambaram was finance minister and Rai the banking secretary.

Padma Awards were instituted in the year 1954, but it has become more and more controversial in the recent years. It’s alleged that awards like Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri are at times given to the persons who had helped the ruling party in one way or the other.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee members, particularly of the Congress, grilled Rai on two occasions questioning the CAG’s calculation of the presumptive loss of whopping Rs 1,76,000 crore for not auctioning the 2G spectrum in January 2008.

The home ministry is the nodal ministry to select Padma awardees. Interestingly, Rai’s batch-mate in IAS, and that too from the same Kerala cadre GK Pillai was the home secretary till June, 2011.
Also Read

20 ex-bureaucrats in support of CAG

Vinod Rai's closed door meet in Shimla

Vacancy of Adviser’s post in Brussels

For officers at the rank of deputy secretary and director in government of India, here is a chance to work in Belgian capital Brussels. The government has advertised for filling up the post of Adviser (Industry and Engineering) in Embassy of India, Brussels, under the department of commerce.

The mandatory qualifications include two years of work at the Centre under the Central Staffing Scheme. The officer should have at least “very good” service record and should not be over 54 years of age.

Experiences in bilateral and trade negotiations and exposure to international trade will be added advantages.

Action and Appointments

a) The Centre has accorded its approval for inter-cadre deputation of Manish Kumar Verma, a 2000 batch IAS, from Orissa cadre to Bihar cadre for a period of five years.

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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Senior IAS attend CAG's closed-door Shimla Meet

Senior IAS attend CAG-hosted closed door brainstorming conclave in Shimla

Famous toy train from Kalka to Shimla

AT LEAST 10 government of India secretaries including those who come under Prime Minister’s Office and finance ministry landed up in Indian hill town Shimla last weekend. The reason? Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai, a 1972 batch IAS officer, hosted an official closed-door brainstorming conclave to find out modalities to encompass more aspects of government under its scrutiny.

Despite Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh aired his voice that CAG Rai overstepped his brief by entering into the policy space, Rai has now managed to rally around a large number of senior babus to drive home his point: A need to strengthen the CAG’s role rather than limiting itself to mere auditing.

Those bureaucrats who attended the CAG-hosted Shimla conclave included expenditure secretary Sumit Bose (1976 batch IAS), DoPT secretary Alka Sirohi (1974 batch IAS), rural development secretary BK Sinha (1975 batch IAS), power secretary Uma Shankar (1976 batch IAS) among others. There is no one from PMO directly, but DoPT secretary Alka Sirohi technically falls under the PMO. Secretaries from some other departments like Panchayati Rai, environment and forests and heavy industries were also present. Also, about a dozen secretaries representing various states reportedly attended the close-door conclave.

Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh and Rai’s batch-mate and CVC Pradeep Kumar also attended the Shimla conclave. Rai and Kumar, both of 1972 batch, are close friends and are in regular touch.

Reportedly it was decided in the conclave that government’s social sector expenditure which amounted Rs 1,60,000 crore this year alone need to be scrutinized thoroughly.
Also Read
CAG Rai as most powerful babu


Action and Appointments

a) The CBI in a case related to alleged illegal mining and irregularities in allotment of mining leases to Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), questioned 1988 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer Y Srilakshmi on Saturday. The investigating agency has raided her house too. Srilakshmi, currently commissioner (health), was earlier secretary of Andhra Pradesh Industries Department.

Who are 5 Most Powerful Indian Bureaucrats, 2011? CAG Vinod Rai tops list

Rai with his wife after swearing-in on January 7, 2008

HERE is the final BoI (www.babusofindia.com) list of 5 Most Powerful Bureaucrats of India, 2011. Surprisingly, it’s not a PMO babu who is ranked top, but 1972 batch retired IAS Vinod Rai has been chosen as India’s most powerful bureaucrat, 2011. Rai, who took over as Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in January 2008, has been a game-changer, forcing the government guessing what damning report comes next in this season of scams. On certain occasions, Prime Minister himself took on Rai, but the CAG remained unperturbed and indirectly dragged the PMO in Commonwealth Games fiasco.

In this BoI power list, third in last three years, Rai has piped those like Pulok Chatterji and TKA Nair. The list has been prepared after evaluating the opinions of 50 politicians and bureaucrats in Delhi’s corridors of power, and using inputs from BoI’s own assessment.

Rai, who was the Union banking secretary before joining as CAG, has cornered the government with his reports on 2G scams and Commonwealth Games. India’s investigating agency CBI has so far arrested 17 honchos including a former telecom minister, former telecom secretary and several top business executives in connection to the 2G scam. Rai is however being criticized by a section in the government for entering into the policy space which auditors are not supposed to intrude.

The CAG report on Air India and KG Basin will be tabled in the House today (Tuesday). The KG Basin report is likely to raise uncomfortable questions to India’s most powerful business house, Reliance Industries.

A post-graduate in economics from Delhi School of Economics and public administration from Harvard University, Rai spends his spare time in playing tennis.

In Order

Chatterji 2nd Most Powerful

When UPA chairwoman Sonia Gandhi was reportedly admitted in New York’s Sloan-Kettering hospital for an undisclosed surgery in August, it was Pulok Chatterji who according to some sources, arranged all the logistics keeping the Indian Embassy in Washington in dark. The big question is: Will Chatterji be able to do the same magic in improving UPA-II’s deteriorating health?

Read

The man close to 10 Janpath

Kumar 3^rd Most Powerful

In this season of scams and growing anti-corruption movements, it’s not unusual that power centre shifts from the conventional powerful bureaucrats to those who check-mate the high and mighty. Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) Pradeep Kumar is the third most powerful bureaucrat, according to BoI.

Read

Kumar may check-mate high and mighty

Seth 4^th Most Powerful

Those who know Ajit Kumar Seth from close quarters say he is not a power hungry bureaucrat, and in many ways represents the same culture that his predecessor KM Chandrasekhar. He is cool and down-to-earth and does not enter into the other person’s domain. But Seth’s woos may come from the fact that it’s not a honeymoon time for the government.

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Seth’s power and problems

Nair 5^th Most Powerful

Principal secretary to PM, TKA Nair, who was the second most powerful bureaucrat in BoI’s list of 2009 and 2010, has slipped to the fifth position in the list of 5 Most Powerful Indian Bureaucrats in India, 2011. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has recently divested Nair’s power as he would no longer be the principal secretary to PM from October 3, 2011. Yet, Nair will continue to exert influence in high-voltage power scene in the year to come. BoI in earlier occasions dubbed him as a master bureaucrat comparing him with Henry Kissinger of yesteryears.

Read

Nair loses AAA rating

Canadian top auditor airs views in support of bureaucrats, what's in Rai's mind?

AS Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai’s team is unearthing one corruption after another in Indian government, here is an interesting observation on bureaucrats by his Canadian counterpart. Auditor General of Canada Sheila Fraser recently commented that she had not found the kind of “inappropriate spending” by bureaucrats as Harper government tightened bureaucrat’s spending in hospitality, travel and conferences. During her decade long career as the top auditor, she has found only a few cases of bureaucrats living the high-life. “I personally don’t think there is a big problem in government with hospitality and travel. The government may want to reduce travel with more video conferences and that’s reasonable — but as for individual cases, they are the exception, not the rule,” she is quoted as saying by Ottawa Citizen. Woh! When can you expect India’s top auditor air such an observation?

Action and Appointments

a) Suspended 1994 batch West Bengal cadre IAS officer Ravi Inder Singh, who was recently suspended from home ministry for allegedly passing official information, recently sought bail from a Delhi court saying he was innocent and can account for all his assets.

b) Dr Alka Bhargava, a 1987 batch Assam cadre Indian Forest Service officer has been reappointed as director in the ministry of human resource development in New Delhi for a period up to June 10, 2012 against the existing vacancy of Saubhagya Ranjan Dhall in that ministry.

RTI convention to work out modalities to get information in PPP projects

ONE of the very few things no Indian bureaucrat can afford to avoid these days is a new development on Right to Information (RTI). With the fifth convention on RTI beginning in New Delhi on Monday, the officers of various cadres are waiting to find what is in store next.
The two-day RTI conference is likely to discuss among others the ways of using RTIs in Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects. The convention, to be inaugurated by Union minister of law and justice Veerappa Moily, will also discuss responsibility of political leadership in promoting RTI, the role of media and civil societies and use of RTI in Unique Identification Project among others.

The technical sessions of the convention, which are being attended by delegation from SAARC countries, will be chaired by AN Tiwari, IC, CIC, Jaswant Singh, MP, Lok Sabha, Wajahat Habibullah, Chief IC, CIC and Ms Mrinal Pandey, chairperson, Prasar Bharti. The Central Information Commission has been organizing the annual convention every year since 2006.

CAG to inaugurate international training programme for 45 audit officers

Vinod Rai, a 1972 batch IAS officer and Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India will inaugurate the 96th International Training Programme on ‘Performance Audit’ at C and AG Office, New Delhi on Monday. The training programme will be attended by 45 participants from 36 nations. Georgia is a new country for this programme.

In fact, 95 international training programmes have been organized so far and 2,815 middle and senior level officers from Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of 121 countries of Africa, Central Asia, South East Asia, Far East, Middle East, Pacific and East European region have participated in these training programmes. Most of the trainees are funded under Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) and Special Commonwealth Assistance for Africa Programme (SCAAP) and Colombo Plan.

An international police meet to begin in Kochi on Nov 3

A major international police conference is beginning on Kochi from November 3, 2010. About 120 delegates from countries like USA, Canada, UK, South Africa and Germany are expected to participate in the mega meet which will deliberate on community policing initiatives around the world. Kiran Bedi, Dr RK Raghavan and Hormis Tharakan, DGPs and top police officers from different states are expected to participate. It is expected to work out modalities of PPP in policing among others. 

CAG’s report card on implementation of social schemes may impact collector’s ACR

AIMING at becoming a Tendulkar or Dhoni by scoring 10 out of 10? The annual confidential report (ACR) of an IAS officer may now depend on administrative skills of an officer in implementing Centrally-sponsored social sector programmes, a report by a national daily newspaper said.

According to a report by The Times of India, the large-scale leakages in many of the social sector schemes are forcing the Manmohan Singh government to ask its official auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), to take the district as a unit to evaluate how it has performed while implementing several developmental programmes funded by the Centre. Till now, CAG had been auditing a particular scheme or evaluating the state’s performance as a whole.

“The ACRs of an administrator in the district and those coordinating and monitoring the schemes at the Centre will take into account the CAG review and the briefing made to the chief secretary in a state,” the newspaper report says. The report has quoted CAG Vinod Rai as saying that the skills of an administrator would be one of the factors in evaluating his performance in future.

The CAG has started district-specific audits in Himachal Pradesh (HP), Meghalaya and Uttarakhand.

Also Read

Can every IAS, IPS or IFS be a Tendulkar? Govt says 'no'

Action and Appointments

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the extension of tenure of Dr Pronab Sen as Chief Statistician of India, with concurrent charge as secretary, ministry of statistics and programme implementation for a period of two months beyond May 20, 2010 or till the appointment of his successor, whichever is earlier.

Babus in Demand

a) Applications are invited for the post of chairman of Rubber Board at Kottayam, Kerala in the rank of a joint secretary.

For details, click DoPT’s WIRELESS MESSAGE, dated May 18, 2010.

b) Applications are invited for the post of secretary, Damodar Valley Corporation, Kolkata under the ministry of power at the level of a joint secretary.

For details, click the DoPT’s WIRELESS MESSAGE, dated May 24, 2010.